By BERN MORLEY
Learning how to tell the time when you’re a kid can be a little daunting. But the process doesn’t have to be a difficult one. There are so many fun and ingenious ways to help making learning to tell the time both fun and exciting.
I’ve recently been teaching my own 7-year-old to not only tell the time but to understand the concept, and I was reminded how cool it is when something just clicks.
It also struck me that now he’s seven, he’s actually the perfect age to learn how to read a clock or watch face. Children aged seven to eight should be starting to learn how to read a clock on the half hour anyway, and although they were learning to do this in class, I realised that there were so many simple things that I could be doing at home to help him.
With that in mind, I didn’t want him to learn the same way that I had to and I wanted it to be fun. It’s like learning to tie your shoelaces – if there is pressure or “work” involved, kids just tune out.
So I came up with some tricks to make learning to tell the time not only easy, but also FUN.
Just as an FYI, you should know that this post is sponsored by Swatch and Flik Flak. But all opinions expressed by the author are 100% authentic and written in their own words.
1. Make sure your child can count to sixty.
It’s something I didn’t even think about when I first started but with 60 minutes in an hour, it is important that they can work out where each minute fits on a clock face. Practice counting in the car by seeing how far 60 seconds can get you in traffic.
2. Teach your child their times tables.
Especially the five times tables. As a clock is often spaced in intervals of five minutes, if your child can learn, 5, 10, 15, 20 etc off by heart, it will be so much easier to work out how to tell time.