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“What’s the time?”
“Is it nearly snack time?”
“Can I have my computer time?”
“How long until lunchtime?”
“When is it bedtime?”
These are just a few of the many, time related, questions that I get asked everyday and I literally cannot wait until my two can tell the time for themselves. In an effort to speed the process up a bit I have been doing a little research into the best ways of helping them to learn.
Here’s what I have come up with…
1) The first step is to make sure that your children actually know their numbers, especially the two digit numbers.
2) Make sure that your child is aware of the difference between the long hand and short hand. Explain that the short hand is the hour hand and the long hand is the minute hand.
3) Buy a *toy clock
4) With your new clock get your child to practice setting the time to specific times of the day, like lunchtime 12:00 or bed time 7:00.
5) Buy your child their own *Analog Wrist Watch
6) Make your child aware of different times of the day, for example when it starts to get dark point out that it is night time.
7) Start by teaching your child the hours, then move on to half hours, next the quarter hours and finally the bits in between i.e. the 5 and 10 minutes.
8) Practice the 5 times tables with your child.
9) When you feel that your child is starting to grasp the concept of time start quizzing them at different times throughout the day and also let them quiz you back.
10) The most important point with teaching your child to tell the time is… make it fun! Source games, worksheets, books, rhymes anything to make it enjoyable.
Good luck with your learning to tell the time stage. I’d love to know how you get on and if any of you have any other great ‘time telling’ tips I’d love to hear them.
You may also like: Clocks Going Back and Young Children + Gro-clock Review
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**Image Credit: Sonja Langford