Hours and minutes for children's learning. How to teach your child to tell time using a clock

Time cannot be seen or felt. But if you know some tricks and practical techniques, you can easily teach your child to understand time and determine it by the clock. Theory and practical tasks, games and exercises to start with - read and try.

It happens that already at a decent age people admit that they only use electronic watches. And everyone has the same reason - either their parents did not explain to them in childhood how to use a clock with hands, or they explained it erroneously. To prevent this from happening, it is important not to leave the problem unattended. Where to start teaching a child to understand time by the clock?

What does a child need to know to tell time using a clock?

Before you start learning time, check your child's understanding of the basics. Can he count? Is he oriented in key concepts related to time? Often parents encounter difficulties in learning and stubbornly do not notice the root of the problem (the child confuses “left” and “right”, does not count well enough, etc.) Therefore, it will be useful to go over the basic skills and make sure that there are no gaps that may hinder the child move forward, no.

Count to 60

Least. Or better yet, up to 100. We strengthen our counting skills with exercises:

- name the double numbers that we see (these could be price tags in a store, house numbers, etc.);
- train counting backwards (from 100 to 1);
- learning to name the “neighbors” of round numbers (50 is the neighbors of 49 and 51, 90 is the neighbors of 89 and 91, etc.).

Count with numbers that are multiples of 5

Surely you have already explained to your child that such numbers always end in 5 or 0. All that remains is to learn how to list and use them without hesitation.

- we count numbers that are multiples of 5, in direct and reverse order;
- we simulate tasks where you need to count in fives (Vlad decided to do push-ups five times every day. How many times will he do push-ups in a week, two weeks, a month? How will these numbers change if from the second month Vlad does not 5, but 10 push-ups a day?)

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.

We teach a child to understand time using a clock with arrows

Oh, these adults! And why do they only allow you to watch cartoons for about 15 or 20 minutes? For children, time is an incomprehensible number. To figure out where it comes from, you will need a watch with hands. If there are no such things at home, but only electronic ones, it will be completely difficult for the child to understand what time is. Therefore, the first step for a parent is to acquire a wall or special children's clock, on which the numbers and arrows will be clearly visible.

Introducing the child to the structure of the clock

First, explain to your child the concepts of “dial”, “day”, “hours”, “minutes”, “seconds”; “exactly one hour”, “half an hour”, “quarter of an hour”, tell us about the hour, minute, second hands. Please note that all arrows have different lengths. Let the child observe which of the arrows is the fastest and which one practically stands still. And how long does it take for each to complete the whole circle?

Be sure to connect all the basic concepts into one logical chain: there are 24 hours in a day, 1 hour is 60 minutes, and 1 minute is 60 seconds. Do not ignore the concepts of “clockwise” and “counterclockwise”. Let your child understand that time always moves forward.

We teach a child to “read” the hour and minute hands at the same time

First of all, teach your child to count minutes in intervals divisible by 5. Minutes are not indicated on a regular clock, so this skill needs to be practiced. You can come up with a legend that each number on the dial has its own “shadow”. 1 is 5 minutes, 2 is 10 minutes, 3 is 15 minutes, etc. The “shadow” can only be seen when the minute hand is pointing to the number. When your child can easily navigate five-minute intervals, tell him about smaller intervals.

The hour hand also has two meanings. In the first half of the day we see the numbers as they appear on the dial, but after a hearty afternoon snack at 12:00 they begin to “get fat”: 1 turns into 12, 2 into 14, etc. A funny analogy will help your child grasp the meaning faster.

The ability to determine time using a clock with hands must be reinforced with specific examples. Draw your child's attention to the clock more often. Correct him if he says the time incorrectly.

The best gift for a child who is learning to tell time by clock is a wristwatch. With them, he will become more willing to answer the question “What time is it?” and will definitely ask you about this in order to check with his “walkers”.

Ideally, a child should have a “draft” watch that he can “exploit” as he pleases: set the time on it, add “shadows” to each of the numbers, sign the names of the hands. For training, you can use an old non-working clock (wall or table clock). You need to remove the glass in them so that the hands can be rotated. If you haven't found one like this at home, we suggest you make your own.

Making homemade watches

A homemade clock will help make time more tangible. If you have the necessary materials, their creation will take no more than 15 minutes.

How to make a watch yourself

The basis for the dial can be a disposable plate or a circle made of cardboard. We draw the circle in half, then in half again and apply the first numbers. Next, carefully divide each quarter into three parts and add the remaining numbers. The dial is ready, which means it's time to attach the hands. We cut them out of cardboard of different colors and attach them to the circle using a button. We place the resulting model of the clock next to the real clock.

When creating your own watch, it will be useful to go over the concepts you have already learned. We drew the circle into four parts - we remembered about the “quarter hour”, attached an hour hand - we remembered its function, etc.

Homemade watches may look unusual. For example, like this:

Games and tasks with a clock

Games and tasks will help you strengthen your ability to tell time using a clock.

"What time is it now"

Show your child how the arrows move. Change their position and call the time. Then have the child do the same exercise. Change the time clockwise and counterclockwise.

Let's complicate the game. We show the time on the clock and associate it with events (“it’s 7:00”, at this time we wake up”, “it’s 18:00”, at this time we have dinner”, etc.). Now we invite the child to pretend to live the whole day.

“Drawing pizza”

The good thing about a homemade dial is that you can make your own notes on it. Ask your child to draw lines from the center of the dial to the numbers and shade each sector with a different color. You will get a “colored pie” or “colored pizza” (this will make it easier to understand 5-minute intervals). Label the second values of each of the numbers (2 - 10, 3 - 15) and minutes (from 1 to 60).

"Daily regime"

Take a piece of paper, write down the daily routine, and together with your child, illustrate it with images of a clock that indicates a period of time (8:00 - time for school, 15:00 - time to do homework, etc.). Hang it above your child's bed or desk. This way the child will learn not only to do everything on time, but also to navigate in time.

Pay your child's attention to how much time he spends on this or that action. This way you can teach him to be punctual from an early age.

“Two options for telling the time”

Tell your child that time can be called in different ways (for example, 1 hour 18 minutes is eighteen minutes past two, etc.). Write down the second, more complex option on a piece of paper, and indicate the hint numbers to make it easier for the child to cope (example: “five minutes to eight”, the hint numbers are 9, 5, 5, 1). Gradually remove the prompts.

"Cubes"

To play you will need 4 dice and our homemade clock. We throw the dice in pairs. The first pair of cubes will determine the hours, the second pair - the minutes. The time that has fallen must be set on a toy watch.

You can find interactive games with clocks on the LogicLike platform. There are many exciting tasks for children of preschool and school age that help develop logic, thinking, and memory.

Introducing the child to electronic, sun, and hourglasses

When your child has learned to tell time using a clock with hands, it’s time to introduce him to other clocks. You have room to move forward! Getting to know electronic, sun, and hourglasses will help your child deepen his understanding of time. Moreover, it will be no less interesting to deal with them.

Digital Watch are more conventional than a clock with hands; they cannot be used to visually track the passage of time. But if the child understands how hours and minutes are counted, then there should be no problems. Get an electronic watch and instruct your child to keep track of the time on it as well. The same TV program always shows the time in electronic format, so the first thing you can do is remember what time cartoons and children's programs start.

Sundial They look more like a clock with hands, so they will be easier to understand. All that remains is to wait for a sunny day, draw a circle in the sand, place a wooden stick in the center, check the time with a mechanical watch and finish drawing the dial. And you can watch in fascination as the shadow of the wand gradually creeps clockwise.

Hourglass It will also be most convenient to compare with arrows. They measure very short periods of time. Invite your child to simultaneously watch the second hand on a mechanical watch and the passage of time in an hourglass. By the way, with them it is much more fun to complete tasks for a while: make the bed, put all the toys in a box, etc., until the sand stops falling.

Teaching a child to understand time is not as difficult as it seems. By solving this problem in childhood, you will help your child become a punctual person, for whom the sense of time will not be a weak point.

At 5-7 years old, most children have a peak of cognitive activity. And this is in many ways the best time to develop together in an interesting and varied way. Until the child was drawn into school everyday life.

To help parents - entertaining logic tasks, exercises for the development of thinking, attention, memory and speech.

Time is an abstract concept for a child; it cannot be seen or touched. In our fast-paced world, clocks with hands are not popular. There are mostly electronic displays on the streets, in public places and in the subway; everyone has a phone that displays the time in numbers. But the little person must first be taught to understand what time it is using the arrows. So, as he grows up, he will be able to plan: how much time is needed for activities, games, walks.

First concepts of time

Children by the age of 2.5-3 years usually know that in the morning they wake up and have breakfast, in the afternoon they play, walk, have lunch and sleep, after a quiet hour they have an afternoon snack, and then the evening comes with dinner, swimming and preparing for night sleep.

When talking with children, you need to use the concepts of past, present and future tense. That is: yesterday we went to the botanical garden, now we will read, tomorrow we will go to the zoo. You can hang a calendar in your child’s room with drawings or photographs depicting the seasons, and explain to him what date, day of the week, month it is. It is better to talk about the seasons with the help of associations and pictures:

winter: snowy, cold, Santa Claus, winter things;
spring: melting snow, streams, birds, leaves blooming;
summer: sunny, warm, berries, fruits, cottage, river;
autumn: rain, leaves turn yellow and fall, birds fly away.

You can tell a three-year-old child that a year ago he was small, didn’t speak very well, was afraid to go down the slide, but now he’s already so big! When another year passes, he turns 4 years old, he will dress himself and help his mother even more. The child will learn to understand that time always moves forward, and he will never be 2 years old again, he will always become older. You need to focus the child’s attention on the time: it’s already 9 o’clock in the evening, it’s time for you to go to bed, we’ll have dinner in 15 minutes, wait 1 minute.

How to teach your child to tell the time using a clock

When a child grows up, at 5–6 years old, learns to count to one hundred and knows numbers, he can begin to be taught to understand time using a clock with arrows. By school, you need to be able to do this on your own. First, you should explain to your child the multiplication table for 5, so it will be easier for him to understand the minutes.

Studying the dial and hands

Give your child a large watch, preferably without glass, so that he can move the hands with his fingers.

Tell and show in which direction the hands always move, that the big one shows the minutes, and the small one shows the hours.
Explain that if the big arrow points to 12, then the number the small arrow points to is the present time.
Moving the minute hand from one number to another, note that this is 5 minutes, until the next one is another 5 minutes, and so on until the end of the circle, a total of 60 minutes. While the minute hand went around the whole circle, the hour hand moved only to the next number, this is one hour.

Give the baby tasks, let him set the arrows, and the mother will tell the time and vice versa.

We create watches with our own hands

Children learn very well through play. A child, with the help of his mother, father or grandmother, can make an almost real watch himself. You need to cut a circle out of cardboard, draw a dial on it, color it, and attach two cardboard arrows in the middle with a button so that they move. You can buy such cardboard watches in the store.

Show your child how the hands move, first the hour hand, then the minute hand. Start with simple values, for example: 2:10, 3:30. When he understands about five-minute intervals, make it more difficult and explain what, for example, 12:28, 1:37 will look like. Let the baby set the time when he goes to bed, and in the morning the mother will set the time and he will answer.

Using knowledge in everyday life

Buy your child a real clock with hands and hang it in a prominent place in his room. When your child understands hours and minutes, introduce him to the second hand, explain clearly what a second is (clap your hands - a second has passed). There is no need to rush, but praise is a must. Some people pick it up on the fly, others need time, but in the end, they all master it.

Educational games

Day and night they go.
Never get tired.
They whisper monotonously to the beat:
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
The arrows look like mustaches.
It's called... (clock)!

http://zagadochki.ru/zagadka-den-i-noch-oni-idut.html/

There are many games that help a child better understand and remember what he was taught. You can draw several dials with numbers and invite your child to depict his daily routine with arrows, and then hang it on the wall.

Photo gallery: games, lessons and tasks for studying time

Draw arrows to indicate the time under the clock. Show the day mode on the clock. Which clock has the correct time? Which clock shows the wrong time? Educational game with clocks Task for learning the hours in the day

Parents and child psychologists agree that abstract concepts are the hardest to explain to kids. Teaching to understand time is not always easy even for a primary school student, not to mention younger children. But meanwhile, this is a necessary practical skill, and everyone will have to master it. Especially for you, dear parents, our article is about how to teach your child to understand time by the clock.

Formation of the concept of time

With normal development, a child notices the change of day and night from infancy. You will be surprised, but even very little ones really understand their daily routine. A small child easily learns to fall asleep and wake up at approximately the same time. At the same time, the baby still cannot understand that he should go to bed at 21:00, he just feels the desire to sleep.

After about the child's first birthday, you can begin to unobtrusively introduce the concept of time. Use the designations “morning”, “day”, “evening” and “night” in everyday speech. Children over two years old can be taught about the days of the week.

How to teach a child to understand time without difficulty? With preschoolers, you can safely make plans for the day. Start by defining your core activities separately for the morning, afternoon and evening. If parents often indicate certain time intervals in conversations with their child: “let’s go for a walk in two hours” or “you must clean up in 10 minutes” - the baby will very soon remember these words. But do not forget that due to the abstractness of the concept, just knowing the names of its units of measurement will not teach you to feel time.

When is it time to get acquainted with watches?

Teachers advise starting lessons with a clock only when the child knows numbers well enough and can count. The approximate age for visual acquaintance with the passage of time is 6 years. Before understanding clock time, test your knowledge. To learn mechanical watches, your child must be able to count to at least 100 and perform mathematical operations such as addition and subtraction. Also, the child should not confuse the numbers. It is very good if the child knows what half and a quarter are, and freely operates with the temporary concepts of “before” and “after”.

Theoretically, you can introduce a child to watches earlier, at the age of 4-5 years. Brief stories about the division of the dial, the movement of the hour hand and the basic principles of telling time will suffice. Just don’t demand from your child that he immediately learn to tell the exact time with minutes or do exercises designed for first-graders. Conduct classes unobtrusively and in a playful way.

Mechanical and electronic watches

In our age of high technology, traditional clock instruments with a dial and hands are not available in every home. A logical question arises: “Should a child be taught to understand time using a mechanical watch?” The answer to this is clearly affirmative. Only a classic watch with a dial will help you understand the passage of time and clearly demonstrate the number of hours in a day. Don't worry, over time you'll be able to easily explain how to tell what time it is using electronic displays. And it will be much easier to do this if the child is already familiar with classic watches. Be sure to purchase a wall-mounted time teller with a dial. A great idea is to additionally give your child a personal beautiful classic wrist watch. You will also need a visual aid for learning and games.

We make watches with our own hands

How to teach a child to understand time by a clock, you ask? It is very useful to use a toy watch to teach this wisdom. You can buy them in the toy department or make them yourself. Start making this craft with your child. Cut out a large dial from thick cardboard. Label it like a real clock, you can add decorative embellishments to the background if you wish. Cut out two arrows from cardboard of a contrasting color; it is important that they differ in length and width. Attach them to the dial using a button. Secure the structure so that the arrows move easily.

As you work, explain to your child the basic principles of how a real clock works, if you haven't talked about it before. In order to successfully interact with this device, you should know that each hour consists of 60 minutes, and each day consists of 24 hours.

First acquaintance with watches

Where to start learning? During the first lesson on the passage of time, teach your child about the divisions of the clock face and the hands. Set the minute hand to 12 and show “even hours” (1:00, 2:00, etc.). It will be difficult for the child to immediately understand the passage of time; reinforce your story with associations that he understands. For example, remind him that 3:00 is lunch time, and at 5:00 his favorite cartoons start. Ask your child to independently set some time within the “even hours”. Having achieved success at this stage, you can safely move on to the next one. Explain that the minute hand makes a full circle in 1 hour. Try setting different times and ask your child to determine it.

Tell me, what time is it?

In order to teach a child to tell time by a clock, it is necessary to regularly draw his attention to the dial. We hope you already have a classic timepiece hanging in your living room. In addition to regular “lessons,” get into the habit of asking casually: “What time is it?” - or ask: “Take 10 minutes.” Do not scold your child for mistakes under any circumstances and do not be lazy to once again repeat the basics of reading and writing with him.

How to teach a child to understand time by the clock during thematic lessons? Take a toy dial. Ask your baby to set a certain time. If the child counts well, you can complicate the task. Offer to show where the hands will be after 10, 15, 20 minutes from the set time.

We create a daily routine by the hour

How to teach a child to understand time by a clock? Playing in such a difficult task can help you achieve incredible success. Do you have any doubts? Check it out in person. It's time to improve your homemade guide. Together with your child, cut out small cards from thick paper. Choose a main character and on each square of paper, draw a specific moment from their day. Let it be a funny person, a fairy-tale character, or some cute animal. Use your imagination and try to come up with something to do for each hour. Let the hero brush his teeth on one card, take a walk on another, and have lunch on a third. As soon as the set of pictures is ready, you can start playing. Set the time on the dial, and let the child select the corresponding picture.

The second option for the game is to draw your own daily routine. In the evening or morning, place cards around the dial, planning the sequence of actions for the day. It is advisable to secure the pictures somehow and check yourself throughout the day, not forgetting to move the arrows.

Quarter and half

When using classic watches to determine the time, it is difficult to do without such concepts as “quarter hour” or “half hour”. Once your baby is familiar enough with the dial, hands and numbers, it's time to explain these conventional units of time. How to teach a child to use a clock and understand time divided into halves and quarters of an hour? Remember that children perceive any explanations best when combining audio and graphic presentation of information. Draw several clock faces on a piece of paper. Let the clock show 15 minutes on one of them, and 30 on the other. For clarity, you can shade the segments from the number 12 to the one where the hand stopped. Explain to your child the meaning of such common expressions as “twenty minutes to one” or “fifteen minutes to fifteen minutes.”

It is best to introduce a child to any new global topic in the format of daily mini-lessons. Do not demand school discipline from your child; it is better to unobtrusively invite him to play with the clock. If your child is not in the mood or the activity is not productive, finish earlier than planned. Remember: learning to read, write, or read for hours will not be productive if it becomes an unpleasant chore. The most useful tip on how to teach your child to understand the clock is to maintain interest in the topic. Try to talk about time regularly. Tell us about the types of watches, and show a stopwatch. Teach your child to sense time and invent your own units. For example, you can remind your child that a walk lasts 1.5 hours, and his favorite cartoon lasts 15 minutes.

How to teach a child to tell time using a clock and consolidate the results obtained?

In order to qualitatively consolidate new knowledge, it must be regularly used in practice. Let your child keep track of time on his own and explain to him how important it is to be punctual. Let your baby remind you from time to time what time you need to leave the house. Together you can track the duration of some processes. Such an activity will definitely captivate the child. Offer to keep track of how long it takes to prepare food, take a bath, or watch a TV show. This simple exercise is great for teaching you how to sense time. Very soon your baby will learn to independently plan his day and, looking at the clock, check that this plan is being fulfilled. After all, knowing that the process of getting ready for a walk lasts 10 minutes, he will be able to put away the toys in time and get ready for the walk.

We hope that our tips on how to teach your child time on a clock will help and be useful to you.

How is a child’s understanding of time and sense of time formed? How to explain to a baby something that cannot be seen or touched? How do you feel time? Does it fly by unnoticed for you, drags on for a very long time, or do you manage your time well? Whatever the answer, you can always learn how to manage your time with your child.

Why does a child need to understand time?

Orientation in time and space are basic skills, and they are laid down in preschool and primary school age. If we teach the child in time, we will accelerate his further development. We must remember that this is a long process, not for one year.

Understanding of time intervals, the fact that time cannot be stopped or brought back; that it only goes forward and can be measured - this is what the child will gain from studying this important issue. And this is not a complete list; a child’s perception of time will help him:

learn discipline;
easier to maintain a daily routine;
gradually learn to plan your time;
an organized child grows up to be a successful adult.

When to start

You can start teaching your child to understand time by the clock at 3 years old, 4-5 or 6-7 years old. You decide. Psychologists and teachers advise starting learning at about the age of six, when the child can count to 100 and add numbers. Knowing the 5 times table can also help with this.

Does this mean that there is no need to touch upon the topic of time until the child reaches six years of age? No. Even a baby feels the change of day and night. We gradually introduce the growing child to the concepts of “morning”, “day”, “evening” and “night”. We tell you what time of day to sleep, play, walk. As we approach two years of age, we learn about the seasons, months, and days of the week. We plan the daily routine together - the baby will learn what it is before and after, what periods of time there are. “After breakfast we’ll watch a cartoon”, “we’ll go for a walk until lunch”, “read a book before bed”, “in 10 minutes we’ll go play”, “guests will come in an hour” - this is how the time comes for the child to get acquainted with the clock.

Playing with kids

Why are we playing? So, in the game, learning is easy and enjoyable, without tiring the children. At 2.5 - 3 years old it will be games with the seasons, parts of the day, then familiarization with the dial, hands, hours and minutes.

To help parents, all kinds of cartoons about the seasons, slides, books, bright pictures, associative cards, lotto with pictures, thematic poems. Some you can buy in a store, some you can make yourself or print from the Internet. Associations work well.

Winter - cold, snow, ice, New Year, Santa Claus, Christmas tree, warm clothes, sleigh.
Spring - the snow is melting, the first buds, the first green leaves, the first snowdrops.
Summer – sunny, hot, sea, sand, berries, fruits, ice cream, light clothes.
Autumn - leaves turn yellow and fall, rain, umbrella, rubber boots, birds fly south.

You can use cards, pictures or lotto for this game. You can also play with words. The game is built on the same principle in parts of the day. Show children pictures, pay attention to what is happening outside the window.

The sun is high or low, it is getting dark or already dark outside. Tie your baby's specific actions to the time of day. In the morning, I woke up, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and ate. Day - games, walk, lunch, nap and so on.

By the age of 4-5, a child usually knows the numbers from 1 to 20, and we can begin to study arrows. Pay attention to which direction the arrows move, what they are called, and how they differ. One short one shows the hours, the other long one counts down the minutes. The first hand is an hour hand, we move it in a circle and ask the child what time it shows. Show your child that the minute hand is at 12 at this time.

It turns out? Let's move on to the minute hand. Let's show that it makes a full revolution in an hour. How to show a time period of 5 minutes? Let's move the hand from 12 to 1, then from 1 to 2 - that's 10 minutes and so on. We are not in a hurry with halves and quarters; it is more difficult for a child to learn them. For now we move the arrow in a circle and count by fives.

Games with clocks for older children

At 6-7 years old, learning to tell time using a clock is easier for a child. His logic, attention and memory are actively developing. Within a few lessons, the child will understand how to handle a clock, and time will no longer be such an abstract concept for him.

At this age, children master time signs well and use them correctly. Difficulties still arise with understanding time intervals. A child often does not know how long a minute lasts, 5 minutes,... Someone thinks that during this time they can have time to eat, go for a walk, or go to the store. How often do we hear: “Mom, please, 5 more minutes!”, and after the agreed time we see the child’s sincere surprise. This time passed unnoticed by him.

We also teach six-year-olds in the form of a game. We play with the arrows of a real clock or a dummy, draw and color the clock and complete the arrows. We play the same as with five-year cards, but now we combine the arrows - hour and minute. We set the hands in any position and ask the child to tell the time. Is it turning out well? You can complicate the task by asking him to write down what he received, like on an electronic watch.

The next step is we call the time, and ask the child to position the arrows correctly. After this, we move on to studying a minute-long period of time.

It is quite difficult for children to navigate in short periods of time. One simple and exciting game “how many things can you do in a minute” will help you cope with this. Someone will draw a picture during this time, someone will drink juice and eat all the cookies. What is your child capable of? We play, experiment, find our own options, time one minute, two, five. Let the learning process be fun and funny. We track how much time is spent on everyday activities - breakfast, washing, brushing teeth, getting dressed, going for a walk, watching a cartoon. You can give your child a beautiful wristwatch or a bright, cheerful watch with large numbers for the nursery.

Quarter, half, hour

When the child understands the clock a little and can tell the time, you can begin to study concepts such as a quarter and a half. For clarity, let's draw a clock and shade or color a segment of 15 minutes, 30 minutes. Let us explain how to understand the expressions “ten minutes to,” and “fifteen minutes to.” Let's tell you that twenty minutes to an hour is 12 hours and 40 minutes.

An apple is a great example. Whole apple – an hour. What if you cut it into two halves? In 4 parts?

A visual aid for a child can be a round pizza cut into four pieces, a round cake or a pie. How long will it take for a child to eat a piece? In a quarter of an hour or faster? I suggest playing, it will be to the liking of any child.

You can practice on any watch with a dial, real or fake. Maybe you have wondered why mechanical watches when every child has various electronic gadgets. Yes, and it seems easier to learn time this way, but this is the wrong decision. Electronic watches will not give an idea of the passage of time. Don't worry, your child will easily adapt to an electronic watch after learning to use a mechanical one.

In order to teach your child to understand time by a clock, you can buy a dummy watch. It's even better to make it yourself. It's very simple and won't take much time. There are a lot of options, choose what suits you.

A clock made from two disposable plastic plates - on one plate we write the numbers from 1 to 12, on the other the minutes - 5, 10, 15, etc., add homemade hands. We fasten everything together with a button and cut the edges of the plates. And let's get to work. You can take two plates of different diameters. On the smaller one we write hours, on the larger one we write minutes. We fasten it the same way, just don’t cut it.

The clock can be made from cardboard. Take a square sheet of cardboard, draw a circle with a compass or trace a plate. We measure the center, draw numbers, cut out arrows from cardboard. We fasten everything together. You can leave the clock square or cut out a circle. Or invite your child to participate and come up with their own design. He will be doubly interested in studying with a hand-made clock.

We consolidate the result

Classes with a child are effective when they are short and carried out regularly, in a playful and accessible way. Practice every day and have fun, don’t force your child to do something he doesn’t like. Say the time out loud, draw his attention to the arrows and what position they are in at the moment. Do not rush your child, everyone has their own pace of development, particularly in understanding time. But full understanding comes only at the age of ten. Put new knowledge into practice. Give your child the opportunity to say what time it is. He can remind you that in 5 minutes you need to turn on a cartoon, and after half an hour you agreed to read a book together. Soon he will get used to using the clock to determine what time it is time to leave the house or go to bed.

By learning to manage time, a child will become responsible and transfer this skill into his adult life. It is worth explaining to your child what punctuality is. Don’t be late either, take care of your time and don’t waste it on trifles. The most effective method is to show your child by example how important it is to be on time. And it’s even more important to have time to love your child and devote invaluable time to him.

Time for a child is an abstract quantity. Small children do not differentiate time at all; for them, any state is infinite. As the child grows up, he observes the change of day and night, seasons, and certain landmarks appear on his personal timeline: birthday, New Year and other fixed holidays.

Understanding clock time is a necessary skill for all people. And although most of us have constant access to an electronic watch, mobile phone, or computer monitor, most parents are still convinced that the child should understand the traditional analog clock.

Where to begin

At the age of 3-4 years, it is time to introduce the child to the concepts of day and night, morning and evening, to analyze their fundamental features and the order of alternation. In order to reinforce these concepts, you can use special aids: cubes for the little ones or cards for older children.

You can start teaching a child to tell time from the age of 5-6, when he already understands what a sequence of events is. He knows what the past, present and future are. He understands that after day comes night.

In order for a child to be able to understand time using mechanical and electronic watches, he will have to master counting to one hundred. Some children can count to one hundred by age 5, while others master it by age seven. This is all considered normal. However, without this skill, understanding the mechanism of time movement is impossible.

The child’s main skills in mastering time should be:

Visual recognition of each number from 1 to 12;

Ability to write these numbers;

Counting skills in 5s (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30).

If your child already knows, understands and can do all this, you can begin to study the concept of time.

How to explain to a child what time is

What is clock time for children? A certain number that adults name when looking at their watches. And if there are no clocks in the house and adults use phones instead, then the child does not understand the abstract concept of time at all.

In the process of teaching a child to determine time, it is important to help him master this concept and feel its length or intervals using specific examples.

So, start with simple claps, each of which is equal to one second. Clap with your child to the beat of a clock that has a second hand. At the same time, explain that now you are clapping your hands in time.

Later, start paying your child’s attention to the length of time he plays or watches a cartoon. For example, one episode of your favorite animated series lasts 20 minutes. Voice it out. Or track the time your child spends getting dressed.

Next, you need to explain to the child that our day is a day with 24 hours. 12 of them he rests and sleeps. The remaining 12 hours are given to complete all important tasks: breakfast, lunch and dinner, playing with friends in kindergarten or preparing for school, and so on. And each of these activities requires a certain amount of time.

Such simple exercises will help the child navigate time periods and understand that each action requires a certain amount of time.

What to teach

For clarity you will need children's toy watches that are for sale in Melitopol toy stores. The watch should have a large dial and movable hands. It is advisable that the clock indicate the numbers corresponding to the minutes - 1 - 5 minutes, 2 - 10 minutes, etc.

The dial can also be cut out according to the template and glued to cardboard. Having made slits on the dial, the values of time intervals are indicated on the cardboard, which the child can spy on if necessary.

Stages of training

Explain to your child that a watch consists of a dial, numbers and hands - minute and hour. The minute hand is noticeably longer than the hour hand.

When he remembers this, leave only the hour hand and numbers. Show how slowly the arrow moves. Explain that if the hand is on the number one, it means one hour. If a little further, it means a little more than an hour. Work out the full time - this makes it easier to move on to studying the minutes.

Next, move on to mastering the minute hand. The child must understand that it is longer than the clock and moves faster, that is, it moves to the next number sooner. Draw small numbers throughout the clock face to indicate the minutes from 1 to 60. Explain that the division between two numbers includes 5 minutes and that the minute hand travels a full circle in 60 minutes, or one hour. Give your child tasks to show you by moving the arrow 10 minutes, 15, 20.

Introduce concepts such as a quarter of an hour, half an hour.

Now tell me how to determine when one minute has passed. Show how 7 minutes will look on the clock and how 8 will look like.

Write or draw his daily routine with your child. Opposite the event, draw a clock face with the image of time. For example, a child wakes up around 7, has breakfast in kindergarten at 9, etc. First, draw just a few pictures. Don't rush the time. But constantly ask your child what time it is.

Practice moving the arrows. Set the game dial to different hour values and ask your child to name the numbers they landed on. Use the simulators from the training notebooks.

Your favorite characters in educational videos will also be able to help you figure out the clock.

Learn to tell time using an electronic clock

A child can recognize readings on an electronic watch more accurately. Compare the meanings of clocks with hands and electronic clocks. It may be interesting for your child to wake up with an electronic alarm clock or set a timer on electrical appliances under the supervision of an adult.

To consolidate the result, offer your son or daughter motivation. For example, say that we will eat candy at a certain time - 3:45. When the clock shows this time, let the child call you. Also, go for walks and go to bed at regular intervals. This mini-exam will be a fun and useful pastime. And it will definitely bear fruit.

The main thing that needs to be conveyed to the child in the process of teaching him to determine time is the fact that time goes on constantly, it does not stop for a moment. An hourglass is a great illustration.

Understanding this process will not only help you more clearly navigate hours and minutes, but will also lay the foundation for a person’s caring attitude towards time, will help you plan your affairs more effectively in the future, and therefore achieve greater results in any chosen task.

Based on Internet materials.