Posted on 03/29/2017
Even with all the digital clocks and watches available, telling time on an analog clock is a skill that every child needs to learn. Like many life skills, the amount of one-on-one time allotted each child in a classroom setting may not be enough to enable your child to master this feat. With a few tools and background knowledge, you can easily teach your child to tell time — maybe even earlier than you think!
Mastery Needed
Before your child can learn to tell time from an analog clock, a few skills need to be mastered. First, your child needs to be able to count easily from one to sixty, and to read those numbers on a clock. Next, your child needs to be able to count by 5s to 60. One way to practice skip-counting by any number is to chant it while exercising or learn it with a song (see this YouTube video). One more thing your child should know is the relationship of time:
• 60 seconds in a minute
• 60 minutes in an hour
• 24 hours in a day
Tools Required
Really, all you need is a clock! If you don’t want to change the time on it, in order to demonstrate various times, you may prefer to purchase a teaching clock that you can easily manipulate. Check out this simple design or this more detailed one. (The Melissa and Doug model includes a self-checking potential, which is great if you want your child to be able to practice independently.)
Alternatively, you could make your own teaching clock with a printable like this one. But you could easily make your own with a paper plate, or even with rocks! We recommend using one color for the minute hand and that same color for the minute numbers and then a different color for the hour hand and the numbers for the hours.
How To Start
Depending on your child's age, you'll want to start as slowly and simply as possible. First, introduce them to the clock face and hands. Then have them point to the numbers in order, going around the clock, then let them move the hour hand. Explain that they are moving the hand "clockwise," which is how hands on a clock always move. You'll want to explain how until the hour hand gets to the next number, it's always that hour, just like your child is whatever age he or she is, until their next birthday! This YouTube video may help reinforce that step, but be sure to use it to supplement what you've already practiced, not to replace your own teaching.
Carefully consider your child's attention span. That may be enough for the first day. At your next teaching time, be sure to review the terms and skills you've already learned before moving on to the next skill. In the meantime, these self-correcting clock puzzles can provide your child with independent practice.
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