Getting acquainted withthe clock's face and hands
Make this new learning process a real game for your child!
Learning to read the time requires both patience and concentration.
However, young kids struggle to remain attentive during hours... parents know that very well! To draw our little darlings' attention and start to teach them to tell the time, there is no better way than having fun doing it!
notionof time
Usually, children learn how a clock works at around 6 or 7 years old and it is also at that age that they start to understand the notion of time. It is however possible to accustom your darling to the face of a traditional clock as well as the clock's little hand (showing the hours) before the first year of primary school.
No need to precise that the kid obviously must be able to count and recognise numbers.
To do so, simply show him/her the clock's face and ask him/her to describe it to you (numbers, the size and number of hands...). Then, you can explain to him/her how it works : what the numbers 1 to 12 refer to, what the different hands are for, the reading direction of a clock.
Reading the timeon a clock
If your little one is interested in time and wants further explanations, it is the right time to move onto the next step : how to read the time on a clock face ?
To make this learning process more fun, it is essential to practice.
To do so, print an educational clock here so your kid can practice and ask him/her to place the clock hand, related to hours, on 3 o'clock for instance (without bothering about the minutes for the time being).
Follow our advice : give different examples and thus place, in turn, the clock hand related to hours in different positions.
Readingskills
Once time reading is mastered, it will be time to explain to him/her that the clock makes a full circle twice a day. To help him/her understand the clock reading difference between the morning and afternoon, the best is to print a morning face and an afternoon one (the latter showing the time am-pm).
Here again, have fun placing the clock hand on different afternoon times so your child can make the connection between numbers of both faces. To make sure he/she understood well, ask him/her to place the hand related to hours on an afternoon time (on a traditional clock face).
Keep playing, in turn, with the little clock hand to make this learning a game.
The more your child will practice reading the time, the more natural it will become to him/her.
Learning to readthe minutes
Let us now deal with the hardest part of the time reading for a child : reading the minutes. Udeful tips:
To make the learning of the clock reading easier, it is recommended to start to show him/her on a clock where every minute is graduated and explain to him/her that every mark corresponds to a minute and that 60 minutes, that is to say a full turn on the clock face, equals to an hour.
Just like the learning of the little clock hand, it is practice that will improve his/her understanding of the reading of minutes.
Indeed, it will make it simpler for your kid to understand the connection between numbers related to hours and those related to minutes (1 = 5 minutes, 2 = 10 minutes, 3 = 15 minutes...).
A littlepatience
Do not expect your little darling to be capable of telling the time in just one day. These exercises must be repeated on a regular basis to enable him/her to memorise all that new information.
Soon, it will be your turn to ask the famous question : what time is it ?