Two Fun Tools for Teaching Kids to Tell Time

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 but don’t like that it’s only marked in hour increments:

Teaching kids to tell time with the 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:

Teaching kids to tell time with the wooden Plan Toys Activity Clock
Teaching kids to tell time with the wooden Plan Toys Activity Clock
Teaching kids to tell time with the wooden Plan Toys Activity Clock
Teaching kids to tell time with the wooden Plan Toys Activity Clock
Teaching kids to tell time with the wooden Plan Toys Activity Clock

(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:

Teaching kids to tell time with the wooden Plan Toys Activity Clock

Then we played the game, setting the clock to the times depicted in the cards that came with the clock:

Teaching kids to tell time with the wooden Plan Toys Activity Clock

We also picked up a copy of the Eeboo Time Telling Game that allows you to introduce telling time concepts in stages to your child, starting first with the hour increments, before moving to half-hour, quarter-hour, five-minute, and then all sixty minute increments:

eeBoo Telling Time Game for Kids

We added hour and minute stickers to the hands on the clocks for this game too. We’ve been playing it quite a bit.

eeBoo Telling Time Game for Kids

One of these days we’ll pick up an analog clock too so we can really practice.

Homeschooling Fun

In our house, we believe that every activity can be a learning experience. Here are some snippets of recent homeschooling activities, all instigated by our four year old daughter:

Playing with cuisenaire rods, building two car trains and learning about addition:

Homeschooling fun: building two-car trains with cuisenaire rods

Writing stories and asking for spelling help:

Homeschooling fun: writing stories on a road trip

Feeding goats at our friends’ homestead:

Homeschooling fun: feeding goats

Morning art time:

Homeschooling fun: morning art time

and the Fractile obsession continues:

Homeschooling fun: fractile obsession

We love when learning is fun!

Watercolor Salt Trails Activity for Kids

Thanks to the awesome staff and volunteers at the Charles Schulz Museum Museum Monday program for this project idea!

Watercolor Salt Trails Art Activity for Kids

I’m a sucker for fun art projects that serve as a learning opportunity. This particular art activity allows kids to play with color making, as well as demonstrate how salt absorbs water. (Pretty freaking cool!)

First draw a picture with glue on a piece of heavy cardstock or watercolor paper:

Watercolor Salt Trails Art Activity for Kids

Then use a spoon or fingers to sprinkle salt on top of the glue, completely covering all the wet areas. Then shake off any excess salt that’s not adhered to the paper.

Watercolor Salt Trails Art Activity for Kids

Using an eye dropper place colored water on the salt trails and watch as the watercolors travel along the salt path.

Watercolor Salt Trails Art Activity for Kids
Watercolor Salt Trails Art Activity for Kids
Watercolor Salt Trails Art Activity for Kids

Be sure to watch what happens when two colors meet!

Watercolor Salt Trails Art Activity for Kids

I love this project because it’s fun for kids of all ages and the final product is so very pretty! I want to make one.

Introducing the Concept of Evolution to Kids

We first introduced our daughter to the concept of evolution when she was two years old with this fantastic book, Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story.

Loving the book, "Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story"
Loving the book, "Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story"

While our toddler liked the pictures, the only part she really grasped on to was that we share a common ancestry with monkeys. For months after reading this book she’d ask us questions like, “Mom, when were we monkeys?” One day she exclaimed, “When I climb trees then I’ll have a tail again! No, no, no, we’ll never have tails again!”

She recently started asking more questions about evolution, so we felt it was high time to check Our Family Tree out of the library again!

Loving the book, "Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story"

I particularly love this book because it explains how we evolved over time with concise descriptions, poignant examples, poetic verse, and beautiful illustrations.

Loving the book, "Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story"

With each example of an evolutionary change, the author relates that shift to us today.

Loving the book, "Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story"
Loving the book, "Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story"

Our now four year old daughter soaked up the storytelling, the pictures, and the thought-provoking story.

Loving the book, "Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story"

I do believe we need to buy our own copy.