How to Teach Your Children how to Tell the Time

When you teach your children how to tell the time, you may find that a number of different techniques will be required as one child may not learn in the same way as another. Giving the children the skills necessary to be able to tell the time, such as sectioning off a clock face, will give them confidence and a sense of achievement.

Start with the numbers

• Teach your children to get used to the position of the numbers of a clock face in the first instance. Use a clock, watch or even numbers written on a paper plate. Encourage the child to count through the numbers as they point to each one, making a point of naming the direction of their hand movement as "clockwise".

Explain hour and minute hands

• When you teach your children, it is prudent to use a clock that has a minute hand which is shorter than the hour hand. This will help you to teach your children to differentiate between the two and determine to what each is pointing to. Depending on the age of the child, relate the clock face to a cake or pizza on which a section disappears with each passing hour. Confirm that both the twelve hours and the sixty minutes are used together to make up the time.

Clarify the second hand

• Use a clock with a second hand when you teach your children how to tell the time, which will help them to understand that sixty seconds make a minute. Get them to count through the entire sixty seconds as the second hand sweeps around and watch the minute hand move after the revolution. Relate this to the imagined zeros to make it clear that there are ten seconds between each number.

Test

• Test whether your child has grasped the ability to tell the time by asking that they variously confirm the hour, the minute and the complete time on a numbered clock. Follow this by doing the same with an unmarked clock, as well as smaller clocks and watches to get them used to the different sizes.