Distinguish between "left" and "right"
For studying in general and so as not to confuse the concepts of “clockwise” and “counterclockwise” as well.
Have a general understanding of time
We explain to the child the concepts of “yesterday”, “today”, “tomorrow”; "past present Future"; “morning”, “day”, “evening”, “night”, “day”. Often children themselves associate time with a specific event: “in the morning I did exercises”, “at lunch I ate soup”, “before going to bed I brushed my teeth”, etc. Therefore, when explaining the above concepts, it is best for a parent to tie specific events to them.
Correct your child carefully if he makes mistakes somewhere. It is important that he does not develop a false understanding of time.
Have you successfully completed the preparatory stage? Now we can teach the child to understand time using a clock with arrows.
At what age is a child ready to understand time?
Obviously, it is best for a child to understand how to tell time by a clock before he goes to school. It’s good if the baby himself shows interest in this topic, asking his mother questions: “Is 10 minutes a very long time?”, “How soon will we go for a walk,” etc.
It’s great if the child himself shows interest in the topic of time, the structure of clocks, and asks his parents relevant questions
Before starting training, parents should give the child a general understanding of time (how it moves, what the past, present and future are, the time of day).
This is usually explained to preschoolers in kindergarten. However, not all children attend preschool or do so irregularly.
In addition, in order to understand how the clock works, the child must be able to count to 60 and know how the indicated numbers are written. It will also be great to understand counting with fives and tens (this is not necessary, but will be just perfect).
Therefore, the specific age at which you need to start learning to tell time using a clock cannot be stated unambiguously (each child is individual, as well as the pace of his development). Some people are ready for this as early as 5 years old, others only at 7 years old.
Time-telling tasks for kids
To consolidate the results obtained and check, the baby is offered to play games. You can remove the wall clock and set a specific time. For example, 10:40, and the baby must say what time it is. The arrows can be moved until he begins to identify numbers more confidently, but it is important not to tire the child. You can play the game in reverse: the adult calls the time, and the baby sets it on the dial.
For the next task, you will need two dials on which you need to set different times (for example, 12:15 and 3:40). The parent shows the dial to the baby and asks what he usually does at this time (has lunch, walks, sleeps).
During the learning process, it is important to be patient and accept failures calmly. It is better to once again praise the baby for his successes, and repeat what is poorly remembered several more times.
Productive and easy techniques for learning how to make a clock
It is advisable to again divide learning to tell time using a clock into separate lessons.
Memorizing and understanding numbers
Many older preschoolers can already count well, some children even up to a hundred. However, in this case it is important to remember the numbers that are multiples of five (5, 10, 15, 20, etc. up to 60).
Even if your baby can count well, it is important that he identifies numbers that are multiples of five.
We can explain that we are interested in numbers that end in 0 and 5.
Getting to know the dial and hands
It is easier to introduce a child to the dial on a toy watch. They can be flat or more voluminous. The main thing is that the numbers are clearly visible and the arrows rotate easily.
It is better to teach your child not on a real watch, but on a toy one, where the numbers are clearly visible and the hands rotate easily.
You can make such a thing yourself from ordinary cardboard or a disposable plate.
You can make a training clock yourself
You need to tell your child that the surface of the watch is called the dial. It can be compared to a pie or an orange: it can be mentally divided into pieces or slices. There are two hands on the dial: a shorter one (it shows the hours) and a longer one (it shows the minutes).
It is necessary to briefly mention the second hand and tell you that it is not found on all watches. This is an arrow that moves very quickly, because a second is a very short unit of time, it is literally one moment.
Next, the adult explains that although there are 24 hours in a day, only 12 digits are reflected on the dial. The thing is that during the day the hour hand (short) goes around the circle twice.
We learn to determine the clock on a simulator with a small hand
First, you should focus the child’s attention on the movement of the hour hand (we don’t touch the minute hand yet). For example, we put the short hand on o and explain to the baby that the clock shows 2 o’clock (if the design of a toy clock allows, the minute hand can be removed for now).
Then the preschooler is asked to set the time himself, which the adult will tell him.
First, let your baby learn to tell the exact time (hours only, no minutes)
Let's move on to minutes
Then the minute hand joins the teaching. First, it is best to explain to a preschooler the concept of “half an hour” - when the long hand is on o (at the same time “30”). You can compare it to half the pie.
After this, we move on to the concept of “15 minutes” (the number “3” on the dial, or a quarter of the pie).
At first it’s easier to show what half an hour and 15 minutes are
After this, we move on to the remaining minute intervals - we show the child all the possible options and invite him to independently set one or another according to the instructions of the adult.
Let the preschooler show a variety of time intervals in minutes on the clock
It may be a little difficult at first, but repeated repetitions will do the trick. In addition, to make it easier to count large intervals, you can first divide them into two parts: 30 minutes and 10 minutes - this turns out to be 40 minutes.
Then you should tell the child that the minute hand can stand not only on a mark that is a multiple of five, but also on other divisions (for example, it can show 6, 14, 27 minutes, etc. You need to draw the child’s attention to the fact that these divisions most often are not signed, but simply marked with short segments or dots to avoid cluttering the dial.
Please note that the arrow may not always point to a multiple of five.
It's also worth noting that adults sometimes round up time. For example, if the minute hand shows 29 minutes, then they often say “it’s 30 minutes now,” etc.
We combine hours and minutes and teach how to tell the time on a watch
When the baby learns to separately show the given hours and minutes on the dial, you can combine these units. Again, first the adult shows various examples, for example, 2 hours 15 minutes. Then the preschooler starts training.
There is one caveat here. The child must learn that when the minute hand moves, the hour hand moves a little. For example, if the time is 5 hours 30 minutes, then the hour hand will not be on o, o in the middle between “5” and “6” (After all, it is not exactly 5 o’clock, but a certain time has passed).
The child must understand that when the minute hand moves, the hour hand also moves slowly.
How to clearly explain “day” and “night” time
And the last stage of teaching is to explain to the child that there is “night” and “day” time (we already told him earlier that there are 24 hours in a day, and the hour hand goes around the dial twice during this time).
The best way to deal with this complexity is to use a special simulator that you can easily make with your own hands:
- You need to cut out two cardboard circles of the same size, but different colors. The first one will be “daytime”, numbers from 1 to 12 are written on it. The second one, accordingly, will be “nighttime” (numbers from 13 to 24). Small cuts are made on the first dial so that the number can be slightly bent. Arrows are also made.
You need to cut out two dials of different colors and sign different numbers on them
- The dials are fastened together (they are fixed by arrows). At the top is the “day” part. Then we show the child, for example, 4 o’clock in the morning and show which “night” number corresponds to this (it will be 16 o’clock).
First, the adult shows the “day” hour, and then, bending the window, demonstrates the “night” hour.
It should be understood that the division into “night” and “day” time is quite arbitrary. After all, 2 hours is, in fact, night, not day, and 15 hours is day, not night. The child just needs to understand that when we say, for example, 19 o’clock, then it is evening, but the hour hand will point to the number 7, etc. Įtempiamos lubos Visoje Lietuvoje Gera kaina Vilnius Jonava Montavimas maybe on the specified simulator.
The simulator will help the child remember which “night” numbers correspond to “day” ones.
DIY toy clock with arrows
Don't make a toy clock with hands for a child. Make them with your child. This way you will motivate him more to use this new teaching tool.
Where to begin
In a child’s understanding, time is a complex, non-existent concept; it cannot be touched or tasted. The baby understands that everything around him is changing, but he cannot measure or feel the changes.
The first thing you should start getting acquainted with is the basic division of time into the future, present and past. Use simple examples to explain these concepts to your child:
- Future: in the evening we will go for a walk.
- Present: We are playing now.
- Past: in the morning we had breakfast.
Explain the difference between them using clear and interesting words and examples.
Why do you need to teach your child to tell time?
Imagine that you cannot navigate time at all. You don't know when you need to go to work, when to return home, when it's lunch, or what time you go to bed and wake up. Also, your baby does not understand how long it takes for his mother to pick him up from kindergarten. He may be capricious if you tell him to wait five minutes, because he does not understand how long it is, he may have to wait all day. If the baby has grown to the age when he can be left alone at home, you tell him that you will return in two hours, and without the ability to tell the time by a dial, the child will be confused, he will not know how long his mother will not be around. In order for your baby to be able to navigate all these things, and also be more disciplined, as well as ready for school, he needs to be taught how to tell time using a clock.
