Begin by telling your child the general time terms — morning, afternoon, evening and night.
Time is quite a radical process. Telling time on an analogue clock is one of the skills that we take for granted. Time itself is an abstract notion. To understand it better you have to find ways to make it more concrete, tangible, and virtual. One can impart this skill to their children through hard work and preservation.
Here are some steps that one can use to impart this time telling technique in their children!
Teach Them About Numbers Before You Teach Them About Time:
One needs to understand the use of words, adverbs, verbs, subjects, etc before writing a whole sentence. Similarly, before they can tell time, the knowledge of numbers up to 60 is a must. You should help them in learning and reading all those numbers.
Simplify The Concept Of Time:
Before jumping into details of a clock face at the very initial step of learning, first, teach the language of time for time frames. You should start with the general concept of time like morning, evening, midnight etc.
Try To Set Up A Few Examples Regarding Time:
To make your children happy, connect this time learning process with their daily routine. Ask some easy questions regarding time and as your kid starts learning time, upgrade the level of your questions, for example at what time his/her school starts?
Teach Your Children To Learn Time And Ask Them To Show You Certain Hours On The Clock:
Practice with the minute hand to teach kids to learn to tell time. The minute hand is more confusing for children. Explain to your children that since there are 60 minutes in an hour 1 means 5 and 2 means 10 and similarly 9 means 45. This can be extremely frustrating for those kids who don’t love to do mathematics.
Get To Grip With The Time Duration:
For time tracking, make a habit of pointing out how long things take in everyday life, for example:- doing his /her homework, playing basketball, etc.
You can also make this time learning activity as a fun activity by connecting your child’s favourite activity with time.
And you can clean your house together and set time for the same
Gift them toys with clock faces and ask them to draw the same. Start making a habit of pointing out the time on a clock, when events happen in our day to introduce what the time looks like.
There are key ages where you should teach your child about time as it is an incremental process:-
Age 5-6: Children should be able to read the hour and half hour maker on an analogue clock and draw the corresponding time as well.
Age 6-7: Children should know the working of the hour hand, minute hand and second hand. They should be able to comprehend the quarter and quarter past concept plus the number of hours in a day, the number of minutes in an hour and the number of seconds in a minute.
Age 7-8: Children should be able to read an analogue clock using 12 hours and 24 hours clock. At this stage, they should be able to use time-specific vocabulary like a.m., p.m., morning, evening, etc.
Why are analogue clocks a better source of learning for this versatile activity than digital clocks?
We are surrounded by digital clocks everywhere these days – on mobile, computers, TVs, alarm clocks but the best way to learn time is with analogue clocks.
Analogue clocks tend to be better at an understanding time because of the constantly moving hands.
The visual impact of this clock fall also makes comprehension easier i.e, seeing the sections of the clock and watching this continuing in a 5-minute interval.
Being able to tell the time in an analogue clock makes you understand other time zones and international time as well.
Learning how to tell time can also help kids with their motor and cognitive skills as well as mathematical skills.
Key Takeaways
As your child slowly builds confidence with the time telling process, encourage them and continue to practice with them regularly. Remember every child has their capacity, they learn different things differently so be patient. Just keep it funny and rewarding. If they make mistakes, simplify the model and correct them again and again.
Also published on Medium.