How to study clocks with your child. How to teach a child to tell time using a clock with hands: a clock and a simulator for teaching time

Parents are the child’s guides into this complex and diverse world. In nature, any parent teaches the child the necessary life skills. Animals certainly teach the baby patience, show how to get food for themselves, how to protect themselves from danger. The human task is also not easy. Today it is not enough to teach a child to walk, hold a spoon, dress independently and take care of himself. The modern world dictates its own conditions - in order for a child to grow up full-fledged and competitive, he must learn a lot from early childhood. And one of the most necessary skills is the ability to determine time using a clock, navigate time, know about time intervals, etc. In this article we will talk about when to teach a child to recognize time, and also consider the simplest but most effective teaching methods.

When to teach your child to tell time using a clock

For a child, time is an incomprehensible and abstract concept that in most cases does not mean anything. That is, when mom says “no time”, this is understandable, but where to get it and where to get it is completely unclear. Acquaintance with time begins after two years, when the child begins to master such simple concepts as Today, Tomorrow, Evening, Morning. It is very important to explain to your child what the past, present and future are. Yesterday we built a snowman - that time has passed and nothing can be changed in the past. Now we are building a pyramid - this is what we are doing right now. Tomorrow we will go to the theater - this is the future, which will come in one day. Having these basic concepts, the baby will at least have some orientation in time space.

But a watch is a much more serious mechanism, which should be familiarized with at about 5-7 years of age. It is advisable to teach your child how to navigate by the clock before he goes to school. After all, when visiting an educational institution, knowledge of clocks is extremely necessary. But before you start studying the clock, be sure to make sure that your baby knows numbers and figures. Here's what your child needs to know to be prepared to tell time using a clock.

The child must visually know the numbers - at least from one to 12. He must immediately name the number that he sees in front of him without any problems.

The child must be able to write these numbers (1-12) and know their sequence.

The child must know such spatial concepts as “before” and “after”. That is, you need to explain to him that before he goes outside, he needs to get dressed, and after he finishes his walk, he will have lunch.

Learning will be much simpler and easier if the baby is familiar with concepts such as half and quarter. This is quite easy to explain using an apple as an example - just cut it in half, and divide one half into two more parts. To make it easier for your child to later learn how the clock works, you can cut out halves and quarters from a circle.

If you decide to start teaching your child, remember that children perceive information by ear rather poorly; they need to touch, feel, and check. To do this, be sure to buy or make a mock-up of a dial with two hands and numbers on it. You can make a double dial - minutes on the bottom, and hours on the top. Cut the segments so that the upper values ​​can be folded back and see the number of minutes.

Classes should not be difficult, painful or long. But they must be regular. Children quickly forget everything and without repetition your efforts will become useless. Practice every day for 10-15 minutes, this will be enough so that after a couple of weeks the child is completely oriented in time and clock. Do not force your child - violence will only reject him, there will be no desire to learn, which means that all your efforts will also remain in vain. By the way, you can interest your child by buying him a beautiful and fashionable watch. This is a great incentive to understand how they work.

How to prepare to study clocks

In order for your baby to understand the clock more clearly, you need to have an excellent understanding of other time periods.

The child must be able to freely understand the seasons and accurately know their characteristics. That is, winter - snow, New Year, skiing, playing snowballs and building a snowman. Spring - trees bloom, snowdrops grow, icicles melt. Summer means a swimming pool, berries and fruits, ice cream, hikes in the forest. Autumn – leaves fall, birds fly away to warmer regions, etc.

It is necessary to teach the child all the names of the months - he must know what time of year this or that month belongs to.
Explain to your child that a month can consist of 31, 30, 28 or 29 days, tell your child about this.

Teach him the concept of a week. Tell us that there are 7 days in a week, on each of which we do something planned. For example, from Monday to Friday a child goes to kindergarten, Saturday and Sunday are days off that we spend with our family.

Tell your child what a day is, how many hours there are, how many minutes there are in each hour. It is worth noting that at the initial stage it is better not to focus on seconds so that the baby does not get confused in too much information. When he begins to understand the hour and minute hands well, you can introduce him to the seconds hand.

During the learning process, it is important to understand that you need to act sequentially - from simple to complex.

Show your child the dial you have prepared. Tell us that the minute hand moves faster than the hour hand because a minute passes much faster than an hour. Show that when the minute hand makes one full revolution, the hour hand moves only an intermediate division.

Tell your child about a simple clock. That is, when he goes to bed, pay attention to the time - the big hand is on the number 12, this means that the minutes in the hour are over. This means that you need to pay attention to the hour hand – it points to the number 9. This means that we go to bed at 9 o’clock. At the first stage, specify only integer hours.

When your child asks what time he will watch cartoons, tell him the exact time, for example, seven o'clock. Let him try to set his mock-up clock to the time you specified.

To keep your child interested, you can show him how many different clocks there are in the world - sun clock, sand clock, cuckoo clock, etc. You can learn various rhymes about clocks.

Focus on the time at which the same actions are repeated every day. For example, in the morning we leave home for kindergarten and work at 8 o’clock, dad comes in the evening at 6 o’clock, lunch starts at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, it takes two hours to sleep, etc.

You can draw three clock positions on paper - for example, 7 o'clock, 4 o'clock and 10 o'clock. Sign under each dial: 7 o’clock – get up, 4 o’clock – sports section, 10 o’clock – go to bed. This will force the child to pay more attention to the clock and time, and besides, sleep will not come as a surprise to the baby, he will be mentally prepared for it. In general, such experiments and adherence to a certain regime make the child more organized, collected and responsible.

When the child clearly understands the meaning of whole hours, you can explain to him the minutes and tell him what “half past two” means. That is, the hour hand is between the numbers 2 and 3, which means that it is no longer two hours, but not yet three. If the minute hand is at 30 minutes (and 30 minutes is half an hour), then the time sounds like half past two. If a child says “thirty minutes to three” for the first time, there is nothing wrong with that, he just perceived the information that way, don’t correct him, because this is also correct. Then, gradually he will learn to use the words - half, without a quarter, etc.

When the baby understands well the meaning of the hour and minute, you can introduce him to the second hand. Explain to your child that the second hand is designed for short periods of time. This can be shown with an example. Ask your child if he can run to the kitchen and back in a minute, will he have time to comb his hair or collect toys? Record the time and try to complete the prepared task. Be sure to notice how the minute and hour hands move while the second hand makes one full revolution on the dial.

Subsequently, when the child masters mechanical watches well, you can introduce him to electronic ones, tell him how they work and why they have numbers greater than 12. Be sure to practice with your child - you call “a quarter past two”, and he should set the numbers 1:15 . It’s the same vice versa - you name the numbers, and he sets the time on a regular dial.

So, gradually and step by step, you can involve your child in the fascinating world of clocks and time. Remember that the best learning is through play, in which new information is received with interest and excitement. Teach your child numbers and clocks not only during certain class times. Do this constantly, return to this topic regularly - after all, we resort to the issue of time dozens of times a day.

Do not forget that time is a value that cannot be returned, and it will depend only on you how the child will treat this valuable resource.

Video: learning to understand time by clock

Alexey Mishnev (22:34:50 03/14/2013):
What is time? Time is the sequential awareness of felt real events or received from information and stored in a person’s memory: in the past, present and expected in the future. The sequential duration of these events is divided into shares and expressed mathematically initially in the form “from sunrise to sunset”, “day -night.” As a result of the development of civilization, modern mathematical chronology arose, dividing events into parts: week, month, year, century, millennium, day, hour, minute, second. Alexey Mishnev. March 14, 2013.

Sofokl (23:00:43 01/28/2016):
The confusion is due to the fact that the word “time” has two meanings: 1) duration. 2) the object’s own time. Duration is measured in seconds. But duration is not time. The proper time of an object is a relative value that reflects the measure of the object’s transition from the fact of the beginning to the fact of the end of its existence, showing what part of its existence potential the object has spent at the time of observation. In other words, the time of an object is its (relative) age. For more details see: Ilyasov F.N. Time as the spent potential of existence. Institute for Research into the Nature of Time. Moscow State University, 2015. /ru/rnameindex/item/

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How to teach a child about clocks and time?

Teaching children about clocks and time can begin long before school. Teaching a child to use a watch is not difficult if he knows the numbers and you are willing to be patient and pay attention to the child.

In order for your child to understand how to use a watch with a dial, you need to devote at least several lessons to this.

1. Mention time during daily conversations with your child. It is advisable to start doing this long before your first lessons teaching time and clocks. Before explaining to your child how you can tell time using a clock, you need to explain to him:

This way, your child will get used to the idea that there is a way to measure time.

2. Make or buy a large watch in the form of a dial with moving hands. Hang this dial in the children's room so that the child gets used to the clock and plays whenever he wants.

The parent sets an alarm clock in front of the child and draws the child’s attention to the following: there are two arrows on the dial. The small hand shows the hours, the big hand always shows the minutes.

3. Help your child find the relationship between numbers and hours. Show him familiar numbers on the dial and tell him the time, for example, “5 o’clock.” Don’t try to immediately give your child complex concepts about hours and minutes; these concepts will be enough for him for the first time. Let the minute hand stand at 12 o'clock, and you show your baby the hour hand, teaching him to correctly say how many hours he sees on the dial.

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Night and morning time is indicated on the clock as follows:

Daytime and evening time are indicated on the clock as follows:

You can consolidate the acquired skills in a playful way.

Invite him to live the day in make-believe. Set the dial hour by hour and comment: for example, 9 o’clock - it’s time for breakfast, 1 o’clock in the afternoon - it’s time for lunch, etc.

- Look at the pictures and name the time at which you do this action. Complete the arrows to indicate the required time on the clock.

- Determine what time it is?

Mark the clock that shows the correct time.

- Look carefully at the pictures and tell me what time it is on the clock.

- Determine which clocks are in a hurry and which ones are late, draw an hour hand.

Encourage your child to set the clock themselves and ask you what time it is.

4. Once your child has learned to tell time using the small hour hand, you can begin teaching the concept of minutes. Ask your child to point to the minute hand.Explain how many minutes the hand shows when it is on one or another number of the dial. If aboutif it is on 12, it means exactly; if it is on 6, it means half.It may be difficult to understand why the arrow at number 3 indicates 15 minutes. In order to eliminate this problem, write the number of minutes under each standard toy clock number, above number 2 - 10 minutes, above number 3 - 15 minutes, etc.

A quarter of an hour is 15 minutes (the large hand has moved 15 divisions, or a quarter of a circle). Half an hour (or half an hour) is 30 minutes (the large hand has passed 30 divisions, or half a circle).

Play games to consolidate minutes.

The child puts hands on a paper clock in the same way as a wall clock shows time. At the same time, he says in full “What time is it now?” For example:08.40 - eight hours forty minutes;06.25 - six hours twenty-five minutes

Set the time: draw an hour hand on the clock.

5. After the child has mastered and learned to tell time using both the hour and minute hands, you can teach the child to use expressions such as:

09.15 - fifteen minutes past ten (this is 15 minutes after nine)
08.50 - ten minutes to nine (that's 10 minutes before nine)
10.30 - half past ten

6. Some dials also have a third hand that is constantly moving. It's called a second and stands for seconds. A second is a moment, they clap their hands, a second passes. Look at the second hand together and clap every second. The lap ended at 60, a minute passed.60 seconds is 1 minute.

7. The watch should be constantly in the baby’s field of vision. Draw your child's attention to the watch, no matter what you do with your baby: during breakfast, games or a walk. When communicating with your baby, always talk about the time, for example, tell him from what time and at what time he can play. Show the time on a toy clock and ask your child to compare it with the picture on a real one.

Questions and tasks:

1. What does an hour consist of? (of minutes).
2. How many minutes are there in an hour? (60).
3. How many seconds are there in a minute? (also 60).
4. Tell us about the hands of the clock.
5. Say: “Ra-a-az” - one second has passed. And if you slowly count to 60 (“ra-a-az,” “two-a-a,” etc.), then about one minute will pass. What can you do in one minute? Ask your mom to time it and try to write as many sticks or circles as possible in one minute. Do the math.
6. The watch face usually has large numbers indicating the hours: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
7. Calculate how many minutes fit between any two large numbers. That's right, 5.
8. Each segment is one minute. When the big arrow moves from one big number to another, it means 5 minutes have passed.
9. How many minutes are there in half an hour?
10. How many minutes are there in a quarter hour?
11. Find the extra word: minute, hour, second, time, half an hour.
12. Why do they say: “Time is more valuable than gold”? “No amount of money can buy time”?

We carry out tasks for consolidation.

As their child grows up, all parents of preschoolers begin to think about how to introduce their daughter or son to watches. It turns out that explaining such a concept as “time” is a rather difficult process, since children cannot see or touch it with their hands.

Determining time is one of the important and mandatory skills, without which it is difficult to imagine independent life. As you know, complex tasks require a lot of effort; therefore, in order to teach a child to tell time on a clock, adults must be patient and start explaining from the simplest concepts.

Parents are first advised to start introducing the baby to the concepts of “morning”, “lunch”, “evening” and the seasons. It is advisable that he knows how to count to 100 and be able to add at intervals of “5”. It is better to conduct classes in a playful way, as this promotes better perception of information. With such training, the child will not need to be forced; he will be interested in learning something new while playing.

Parents should prepare some teaching materials in advance, because with the help of visualization it will be easier for children to perceive the process of time. Funny and bright illustrations will remain in their memory for a long time.

First, the baby is introduced to the future, present and past tense. You can give common life examples:

• Yesterday it rained heavily - that's the past;
• now you are riding a bike - this is the present;
• Tomorrow is a day off and we will go to the park - this is the future.

For example, it’s snowing outside - winter has come. When the grass turns green and the trees bloom, spring has come. In the summer you can swim in the river and eat ice cream, and with the onset of autumn the leaves turn yellow and fall off, and the birds fly away to warmer climes.

After getting acquainted with the seasons, they begin to study the names of the months. The child must remember which months belong to each season. Then tell him that a month consists of a certain number of days (28, 29, 30, 31) and weeks. Each week includes seven days.

How to explain to a child what time is and how it is reflected on the clock

The parent must explain that all adults live according to time. With its help, they know when to wake up and leave the house for work or school. It is also important to say that the arrows can only move forward. The baby is introduced to the concepts of “second”, “minute”, “hour”:

It is advisable to regularly tell your child what time there will be breakfast, lunch, sleep or a walk today. You can ask him to complete some task, for example, in two minutes. It is imperative to show how the position of the arrows changed in two minutes.

How to teach a child to tell time using a clock with hands?

Adults should show the child a regular clock with hands and ask him to describe what he saw on it. For classes, it is better to choose a mechanism with large numbers and minute divisions. Together you need to count the small lines, which will total 60 - these are minutes. When the small second hand passes a circle, one minute has passed, and when the largest second hand has passed, one hour has passed.

Learning through drawing

Children perceive information better while playing, so together they should draw and cut out a homemade clock with arrows. To begin, cut out a circle from cardboard and draw a dial on it. They give the child the opportunity to color it to their liking and apply the numbers in bright colors. Two hands (hour and minute) are drawn on cardboard, cut out and attached to the dial so that they can move in a circle.

To get acquainted with the quarter dial, the homemade mechanism is divided into sections of 15 minutes each. In each section you need to count the number of lines. You can draw colorful pieces of pie on the dial, each piece of which equals 15 minutes. To study the half hour, the dial is divided into two equal halves and shaded with different strokes. The parent explains that there are two equal halves of 30 minutes in an hour.

From big to small

After the baby has mastered the interval of 30 minutes, you should move on to studying the interval of 15 and 5 minutes, remembering to repeat that 15 minutes is a quarter of an hour. The child is asked to go for a walk in 15 minutes, but he must remind him of the passage of this time. If, before learning, he can accurately add the number “5” to the previous number, then it will be much easier for him to master the minutes.

It is advisable to cut out a new circle from cardboard, which is divided into sections with five lines in each, and count the minutes in each sector.

To make it clearer for your child, you can write next to the main numbers how many minutes there will be:

• arrow for 1 – 5 minutes;
• for 2 – 10 minutes.

Teaching time and consolidating material in a playful way

As you know, children perceive information best in a playful way, so parents should take care to create an interesting and fun learning process.

Using the constructor

You can purchase a special kit in the store, which includes a wooden construction set and a notebook with assignments. Thanks to the additional developmental materials that are in the notebook, the baby will not only master the dial, but also prepare for school.

The wooden construction set is a dial with numbers from 1 to 12 and from 1 to 24. The minutes and seconds are marked on the construction set, and there are also movable hands with which the baby can set the time. The constructor can be colored as you wish.

Today, many children tell time only by electronic mechanisms, because it is much easier. The online game “Learn Time” helps you understand what time a mechanical watch shows. The game invites you to look at an electronic watch and, among the proposed mechanical options, find one that shows the same numbers. After confirming the choice, the baby moves on to the next task.

The game is designed for children from 3 to 5 years old. Here you can see a mechanical clock in the shape of a house where a cuckoo lives. There is an electronic clock in the right corner of the screen. First, they determine the time on a mechanical clock, and then set it on an electronic clock. The baby needs to follow the view from the window in order to correctly determine the time of day.

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).

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 an elementary 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.