Even in this day and age when almost everything is electronic, your child will benefit from learning how to tell time by reading an analog clock.
In this article, we’ll explain the importance of knowing how to tell time, walk through key vocabulary, and show you how to help your child learn and practice this essential life skill.
Table Of Contents
- Types of Clocks
- The Importance of Learning How to Tell Time
- When to Teach Your Child to Read a Clock
- Essential Time Vocabulary
- How to Tell Time: Reading an Analog Clock
Types of Clocks
When it comes to telling time, there are two types of clocks that your child should know how to read: analog and digital. Even though we’re mainly focusing on analog clocks in this article, it’s important to mention digital clocks as well.
Analog Clocks
Analog clocks are tools to tell time using hour, minute, and second hands that move around a circular dial on a 12-hour basis. This is what most people think of when they hear the phrase “tell time,” and it’s what previous generations grew up using.
To tell time on an analog clock, you have to relate the positions of the clock hands to the numbers or notches on the dial.
Digital Clocks
Digital clocks are more recent tools that make time-telling easier. Instead of having to translate hand position to time, digital clocks feature the time in natural numbers.
Some digital clocks are based on a 12-hour day with AM and PM indicating morning and night, whereas others tell time on a 24-hour basis.
The Importance of Learning How to Tell Time on an Analog Clock
Learning how to read an analog clock not only provides the obvious benefit (knowing the time), but it also builds a host of other developmental skills for your child. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Math
As your child reads a clock, they will hone skills in counting, adding, subtracting, and even fractions.
Vocabulary
Because timekeeping involves lots of new words—which we highlight later in this article—telling time will bolster your child’s vocabulary.
Pattern Recognition
When learning to tell time, your child will start recognizing the relationships between the different parts of the clock and their positions.
Time Management
Reading a clock will help your little one understand the importance of setting expectations for themselves and others when it comes to managing their time.
Independence
Being able to tell time is also the first step in following a schedule. Using their new skills, your child can start to make informed decisions, which will foster independence.
Critical Thinking
As your child learns to read a clock, they will begin to recognize the relationship between the hands of the clock and the inferred time, thus developing critical thinking skills.
When to Teach Your Child to Read a Clock
Children typically learn to read a clock between kindergarten and second grade—at approximately six to eight years old. In kindergarten, your child will learn basic vocabulary around clocks, as well how to tell time to the nearest hour.
In first and second grade, school lessons get more detailed and your child’s time-telling skills get more precise until they can tell time on their own.
Essential Time Vocabulary
Before we walk through teaching your child how to tell time, let’s take a look at some of the important vocabulary words.
Clock Face
The clock face is the front of an analog clock and features numbers one to 12 on a circular dial.
Hour Hand
The hour hand is the shortest hand (or pointer) on the clock, which rotates around the center of the clock face. This hand moves from number to number on the clock every 60 minutes.
Minute Hand
The minute hand is the longer hand and moves every 60 seconds. Whatever number the hand is pointing to represents how many minutes have passed in the hour.
Second Hand
The second hand is the fastest moving hand, sweeping around the clock second by second. After 60 seconds pass, the minute hand takes its cue and moves one number forward.
AM/PM
The concepts of AM and PM are important when learning to tell time because, as we mentioned, analog clocks only feature 12 hours of the 24-hour day.
This means the hour hand goes around the clock two times, once in the morning and once in the evening, to represent the passage of a full day. As most analog clocks do not indicate whether the time is AM or PM, you have to use context clues to determine which it is.
Time-Telling Jargon
To make things more complex, jargon is also often used when telling time. Common phrases include:
- 10 of = 10 minutes before the hour
- 10 after = 10 minutes after the hour
- 20 = 20 minutes before the hour
- 20 after = 20 minutes after the hour
- Quarter of = 15 minutes before the hour
- Quarter after = 15 minutes after the hour
- Half past = 30 minutes past the hour
How to Tell Time: Reading an Analog Clock
Now that you know why telling time is important and the key vocabulary, let’s dive into teaching your child how to do it.
1) Present the Concept First
It’s best to start off by talking about time in general first. Run through the parts of the day—morning, afternoon, and night.
Then apply the concept of time to your child’s everyday routines like getting up in the morning, eating breakfast, going to school, and going to swimming lessons, for instance.
2) Choose Your Practice Clock Wisely
As you teach your child how to tell time, you’ll want to use a clock with clear numbers and hands. Bonus points if it’s themed or features a fun color that will engage your child even more!
3) Start with Clock Parts
You’ll want to build your child’s timekeeping vocabulary. Teach them the parts of the clock and how to differentiate one hand from another. You’ll also want to make sure they understand AM and PM.
4) Practice Math Skills
Because there are lots of math skills involved in telling time—like counting to 60, skip counting by fives, adding and subtracting, and using fractions—it’s a good idea to brush up on these skills.
5) Present Analog and Digital Clocks
Although most of your lessons will involve an analog clock, it’s important that you teach your child how to read a digital clock as well. Talk about the parts of the clocks, pros and cons, similarities, and differences.
6)Use Time Telling in Everyday Activities
In order for your child to understand the importance of learning to read a clock, start using time-telling language throughout the day—for instance, “We’ll go to the pool at 9:00 AM” or “Be ready for lunch at 1:00 PM”.
7) Make a Daily Schedule
Take your verbal timekeeping a step further by making a written schedule with your child’s daily routine. This will help them associate their favorite activities with the times that they occur.
8) Make Practicing Fun
It’s important to make practicing how to tell time feel like fun for your child. The more hands-on the better! Here are two ideas to try:
- Encourage your child to construct their own clock with a brass fastener and some construction paper. Then ask them to move the hands to reflect the times that you call out.
- Draw blank clock faces and ask your child to draw the hands corresponding to various times.
It may take a little time for your child to master telling time. But don’t worry; they’ll be a time-telling pro in no time at all! Pun intended.
Tick Tock Fun
By teaching your child how to tell time, you’re helping them develop a valuable life-long skill. Start with the basics, like types of clocks and vocabulary, and then use fun activities to help them learn and practice until they’ve got it.
Begin offers many engaging hands-on and digital kits to reinforce the skills your child needs to start reading a clock and more.
For instance, our HOMER Early Learning Kits help children expand, practice, and apply essential skills for their age and stage. Every month your child will get a new HOMER subscription box filled with fun activities geared toward their age.
By making acquiring new skills fun, Begin helps set your child up for a lifetime of learning. Time is ticking, so what are you waiting for?
