We live in a world full of digital clocks. Our daughter checks the time on the stereo, on our cell phones, on the alarm clock in our bedroom. We don’t even own an analog clock in the house! Yet this is one skill that must be learned, along with cursive writing, also soon to be obsolete, but important nonetheless.
We love our wooden Plan Toys Activity Clock
So we decided to take matters into our own hands and add stickers marked in five-minute increments to the clock. This way our four-year old daughter, who is just learning about telling time on analog clocks, could more easily move the yellow minute hand to the right spot:
(We ended up swapping out the 60 minutes sticker for a 0 minute sticker — much easier for our daughter to grasp the concept of 1:00 with the ending matching!)
We also added hour and minute stickers to the hands of the clock:
Then we played the game, setting the clock to the times depicted in the cards that came with the clock:
We also picked up a copy of the Eeboo Time Telling Game
We added hour and minute stickers to the hands on the clocks for this game too. We’ve been playing it quite a bit.
One of these days we’ll pick up an analog clock too so we can really practice.
Wow that’s fantastic — what fun tools to learn with! Love your home schooling ideas and all the various ways to teach a concept! So thrilled my granddaughter is learning to tell time!
How fun! Is she too young to learn the concept of rounding up or down? Prior to digital clocks, you would rarely have heard that the time was 12:28. You would have been told “it’s almost 12:30”.
I found telling analog time extremely difficult as a kid and eventually refused to learn after telling my mother, “But Mom, everything will be digital someday!” Despite my prophetic brilliance, I’m now a grown-up who can’t wear an analog watch because I can’t read it fast enough! Not so brilliant. ;-) I hope Miss Leyba will teach ME this important skill using her fun games the next time I come to visit!
How fantastic, that looks like so much fun!!!!