Teach your child how to tell time by starting with basics PDF Print E-mail
Of course you want your child to be able to tell time. But he must first understand what time is before he can meaningfully look at a clock and inform you that it's 7:43.

Here are some guidelines for going through the process of telling time with your young child:

1. Begin by talking about the day. Before telling time, your child should understand that today is now, yesterday is what happened until he went to sleep last night, and tomorrow is what it will be after he finishes the next sleep. Say, "Yesterday you went to school. Today we are at home. Tomorrow, after you get out of bed, we'll go to Grandma's."
2. Move on to broader times of day. Morning is the time between waking up and lunch. Afternoon is between lunch and dinner. Evening is dinner and bath. Night is when it's dark. Discussing times of day in these terms will help your child understand them.
3. Use before and after. Say, "Before you brushed your teeth this morning, you ate breakfast. After you got dressed, we went shopping."
4. Introduce the clock when your child is comfortable with the above concepts. Start with teaching your child the names of the hour hand (short hand) and minute hand (long hand). When he knows these, teach him times on the hour only for now. "See how the minute hand is on the 12, and the hour hand is on the 1? That means it's one o'clock."

Reprinted with permission from the February 2010 issue of Parents make the difference!® (Early Childhood Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2010 The Parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc. Source: Jackie Silberg, 500 Five Minute Games, ISBN: 0-87659-172-1 (Gryphon House, www.gryphonhouse.com).
 

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