Sunday 9 February 2014

Telling the time....

Telling time is a concept children often struggle with.....Becky who's 11 was about 9 before she was able to tell the time properly.....Ellie is 6 and can just about tell the time now....She if fine with the minutes past the hour but struggles with the minutes to an hour.....If it's 25 to the hour she will say it's 7 to....

When you think about it there is a lot to telling the time!! It involves number recognition, using fractions (half past, quarter after, etc.), counting by ones and fives and understanding the big and little hands and their functions on the clock.....

With my girls I started by making a clock out of a paper plate with numbers written on and used a paper fastener to attach paper hands....You can move the hands to show different times. I started with the hours first and then did quarter and half hours then moved onto the 5 minute intervals...They soon got the hang of it!!
 
When they grasped the basics I bought them their own watch as a reward which they loved....They both thought they were so grown up being able to tell me what time it was....Even now if they have their watches on and I'm in the kitchen and I shout 'what time is it'? They will make it a competition to who can tell me first...

Online shops like the The Watch Hut have some wonderful watches for kids....I love the girls Hello Kitty one....I wonder if they do it in an adults size....

When your child knows how to tell time or at least grasps some of the basics life seems to become so much easier. They'll know what you mean when you say 'you have five more minutes before we leave the park' and they know how long they have before they have to go to bed and are so good at reminding me things like I said I would make tea at 5 o'clock.....hehehe

10 comments :

  1. I have a feeling my parents did the same and rewarded me for learning how to tell the time with a watch. Mine was a timex though and nothing like as much fun as the Hello Kitty one!

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    1. My parents did the same with me too...My watch was a plain red one....Nothing as fancy as the one's you can get now :)

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  2. I have never really bothered with wearing watches but lately I have been lusting over a Daniel Wellington. It's weird I don't like wearing watches a lot because I always had one when I was younger xx

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    1. I hardly wear a watch now....I see loads I want but always find something more important to buy....hehehe

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  3. It is so important for children to wear watches from a young age not only does it help with learning, but also to teach them the concept of time and time management x

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  4. I love the Hello Kitty watch, I definitely think it is so important for a child to learn to tell the time from a young age, I know far too many people that are my age (early 20s) who still struggle with telling the time. My little brother is really good at it. He reminds you of the time mainly when you're watching a film. He likes to know how long left he has with the films. haha

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    1. hehehe! It's fab isn't it!
      Gosh I thought most people could tell the time easily by their 20's but I suppose it's all digital now like on mobile phones....

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  5. I was teaching a 16 year old to tell the time this week. Trouble is that teenagers all use their phones to tell the time so there is no place for a watch. And having a watch is the only way kids get the chance to practise so its important they do this when they are young!

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