Has your little one finally learnt how to read the time on their time teacher watch? Now comes the really tricky part of getting them to look after their very own EasyRead watch!
Our time teacher watches are suitable for children ages 4+, which also means they’re suitable for all of their daily activities. With a stainless steel back, non-allergenic plating, and a washable nylon strap, our EasyRead watches are ready for anything your little ones have planned, but there are some steps that you can take to keep them in their best condition and make sure they last as long as needed.
Choose our waterproof watches
Our EasyRead watches are water resistant and can withstand splashing, but not total immersion (unless you opt for our waterproof watches). This means that your little ones don’t need to take them off when washing their hands or walking to school in the rain, but continued exposure to water will damage even the most robust EasyRead system, so make sure that they always take it off before showering or bathing.
We all like to think that we can trust our little ones to be responsible for their watches, but if your child is active and outdoorsy and you’re worried that they’ll use their watch around water, why not treat them to one of our waterproof versions? These watches are waterproof up to 50m and their stainless steel case and scratch-resistant glass means they can be used anywhere, anytime, without becoming too damaged, and also means that it doesn’t matter if your little one forgets to take it off before entering water.
Check the strap
Our watch straps come in a wide range of colours and designs to suit all different tastes, so you can easily customise your little ones’ watch if their favourite colour changes over time, or if the original strap becomes worn.
Our breathable nylon straps with stainless steel buckles are tough and washable, but they can become worn down through continued rough play or water damage. So, keep ahead of this by checking the strap every week or so, particularly after outdoor activities, or stock up on one or two extra straps to keep at home in case the strap breaks.
Take it off when necessary
Our watches are built to last, but like all accessories, it is a good idea to ask your child to take off their time teacher watch before doing any rough or physical activities.
This includes playing sports like rugby or football in school or helping with manual chores around the house and garden. Of course, this is within reason – we can’t expect them to remember this every time they want to swing on the monkey bars or play tag – but they should take it off before engaging in any activities that are likely to damage the plating or scratch the watch face.
A great way to get your little one to understand this is to compare their watch to a pair of glasses; either their own pair or one that belongs to a family member. Explain that if an activity would require them to take off their glasses, then they should also take off their watch to keep it safe.
Store it safely
Our watches can be used any time of the day or night, but when they’re not in use it’s a good idea to store them in a way that prevents them from accidentally becoming damaged.
As a starting point, watches should never be stored face-down as this is almost guaranteed to result in a scratched surface, so encourage your little one to get into the habit of storing their watch with the face facing upwards. If you’re worried that they’ll probably forget to do this, or you’re trying to encourage them to take good care of their belongings, then invest in a protective case to keep the watch safe when not in use. This can then be stored by their bedside or packed into their school bag to make sure that their time teacher watch is protected whilst they’re out and about and always on hand when they need it.
Remember it’s a tool
A time teacher watch is a fun but educational resource, and it is often the first such tool that a young child will use. So, whilst it is fun to play with throughout the day, make sure you remind your little one that it is much more of an educational tool than a toy and they need to use it properly.
Encourage them to be careful with it, just as they would be careful with school property, and remind them that they shouldn’t let other children try on their watch if they can’t trust them to be careful with it. Having their very own watch also signals to young learners that they are growing up and are trusted to keep their belongings safe, so remind them that if they can look after their watch then everyone will know that they are growing up to be reliable and responsible, and praise them for taking good care of their watch.
Our EasyRead time teacher watches
Do our durable, reliable EasyRead watches sound like a good investment in your little ones’ learning? Check out our full range here, and don’t forget to practice our EasyRead method with them – available for all our Past/To Watches and our 12/24 Hour Watches.
Are you or your little ones having trouble with how to tell the time on a clock with hands? With screens and digital devices dominating our daily lives, it’s no surprise that analogue clocks can be confusing in the digital age. It’s not uncommon for children to feel confused and frustrated by analogue clocks, and for learning how to tell the time to become a daunting task. That’s why, at EasyRead Time Teacher, we offer a range of clocks, watches, and fun games designed to make learning to read analogue clocks much easier for children and adults alike.
Analogue time-telling challenges
In today’s digital age, children and adults are surrounded by screens and digital devices that display time in a digital format. The unfamiliarity with analogue clocks can lead to confusion and frustration, making it difficult for children to grasp the concept of time once they begin to learn how to tell the time in nursery or primary school. Any confusion or challenges children face can be made worse if their parents experience confusion when using an analogue clock. As many adults rely solely on their phones to tell the time, and don’t often use analogue clocks, it can be confusing for them to return to analogue clocks to support their children’s learning. As a result, the concept of reading time on a traditional clock with hands can be a challenge, but it remains an essential life skill.
The most common, and potentially the most confusing, challenge that children face when learning how to tell time is the use of numbers and divisions on the clock face. Unlike digital clocks that display the time in a clear, straightforward manner, analogue clocks require children to tell the time themselves. Digital clocks show only the time, and don’t contain any additional numbers that can cause confusion, whereas analogue clocks require children to interpret the position of the hands in relation to the numbers on the clock face. This can be a cognitive hurdle for many children, as it requires spatial reasoning and the ability to mentally divide the clock face into segments.
Another complex challenge children face when reading the time is understanding the relationship between the hour and minute hands. The varying lengths of the hands and their distinct movements can be confusing, especially for young children. It can also be hard for them to identify which hand is which, as the majority of clock designs contain hands of the same colour which can cause the hands to appear as similar lengths to each other. Additionally, the minute hand’s continuous movement can be overwhelming, making it hard for children to determine the exact time, particularly if the hand moves gradually rather than jumping between the minutes.
The digital age has undoubtedly played a role in exacerbating these challenges. Children are constantly exposed to digital clocks on their electronic devices, which provide an instant and precise representation of time. However, this reduces an understanding of time to four simple numbers on a screen, rather than requiring a working understanding of the passage of time and how the key components of a clock work together to demonstrate the time. This stark contrast to analogue clocks can make it difficult for children to understand why analogue clocks are still relevant and necessary to learn.
One of the key features of our clocks is the clear and distinct labelling of the hour and minute sections of the clock. There are two key sections of the clock, with an inner ring showing the hours, with the hour hand clearly embedded within this ring to clearly show the time. The second, larger ring runs around the edge of the clock, and breaks up each minute into clear sections. This separation between the different hands helps children and adults differentiate between the two and makes it easy to visualise and understand their respective functions.
Past and to design
Our EasyRead clocks also feature a unique “minutes past” and “minutes to” design at the centre of the clock face. Instead of relying solely on numbers, these clocks use the phrases “minutes past” and “minutes to” to indicate the time. This approach helps children understand the concept of time progression and the relationship between hours and minutes. Subtle markers for the quarter hours, as well as an “o’clock” reminder at the top of the face, complete this comprehensively scaffolded design.
By using phrases rather than numbers, children can develop a more intuitive understanding of time and its progression, making it easier for them to articulate the passage of time rather than simply reading numbers that they may not fully understand. As well as the “minutes past & to” method, our clocks are available with the “12/24” hour option as well, depending on the preferences of your child, yourself, or the whole household. These designs include all 60 minutes of each hour, and the 24 hours of the day rather than the initial 12 on our “past & to” designs.
Time teaching
Our clocks come with a step-by-step teaching method that gradually introduces children to different aspects of reading time. The clocks include a detailed instruction manual that guides parents and teachers on how to tell the time, helping parents to effectively teach children to read analogue time. The step-by-step approach ensures that users of our clocks can build their time-telling skills progressively, leading to improved confidence and accuracy.
Improving time-telling skills with our watches
In addition to our wall clocks and alarm clocks, we also offer watches designed to further enhance users’ time-telling skills by serving as an opportunity, and a constant reminder, to practise reading analogue time in real-life situations. Available with either the “minutes to & past” method or our 24-hour clock designs, our watches are designed to accommodate the method that your child, or yourself if you are keen to improve your analogue time-telling abilities, prefers.
Our watches, like our clocks, are designed with clarity and simplicity in mind, and our watches feature the same innovative design elements as our clocks, making it easier for children to transfer their time-telling skills. This consistency in learning and practising makes it easier to implement long-term recall and for users to practise their new skills wherever they are. By regularly using their watch to track the passing time, children can learn to manage their daily activities and develop their time management skills. This skill becomes especially valuable as they grow older and face more structured schedules and time-bound tasks.
Whatever your child’s style preferences or lifestyle requirements, our range of watches will have the perfect solution. As well as offering the time-telling method that best suits your requirements, our watches also come water-resistant as standard with the option for a fully waterproof watch for users who spend the majority of their time outdoors or engaging in physical activity. Choose the time-telling method of their choice and pair with a watch strap in their favourite colour, or our camo option, for a personalised, stylish daily accessory that encourages your child to actively read analogue time.
Making time-telling fun with our games and resources
Here at EasyRead Time Teacher, we believe that learning should be a fun and interactive experience. That’s why we offer specially-designed time teaching games and resources that go hand in hand with our clocks and watches, making time-telling an enjoyable activity for users of all ages.
As well as the EasyRead leaflet that comes with our clocks to introduce the time-telling methods we offer, our tell-the-time card games are one of our most useful and engaging resources. The card games allow children, and members of the whole family, to practise their time-telling skills at their own pace at home. The concept of the games is to reinforce understanding through repetition, and the game can be repeated as many times as needed thanks to the 60 playing cards showing 15 different times of day.
By creating an association with family time and an engaging game, our cards keep children motivated and interested in learning, as well as making telling the time an interesting challenge, rather than a tedious lesson. We take the outdated methods of teaching children how to tell the time and remodel them to suit the requirements of 21st century learning, as well as framing the concept of time in an accessible, easy-to-follow way. By bridging the gap between school, home, and free time, our resources ensure a comprehensive approach to telling time, and encourage users of all ages to develop their time-telling skills and gain a deeper understanding of time and its relevance in our daily lives.
Overcome how to tell the time struggles with EasyRead
Learning to tell the time on a clock with hands may seem like a challenging task in today’s digital age, but with the help of our clocks, watches and games, children and users of all ages can overcome these struggles with how to tell the time and develop a strong understanding of an analogue clock.
Whether you are introducing time as a concept to young children, or making sure that your students can understand time through real-world examples, learning clocks are an excellent time-teaching tool. Learning clocks not only help children tell the time, but are also an effective way to introduce maths concepts such as fractions, addition and subtraction.
Our colourful, engaging classroom learning clocks are an excellent tool for introducing the concept of time to students. These clocks are designed to include all the information that a child needs to learn to tell time, including clearly-marked minutes, ten-minute blocks, and ‘past/to’ indicators. These straightforward visuals make it easier for children to understand and engage with the concept of time, and these time-telling skills can subsequently be applied to many mathematical activities. This can include addition and subtraction, as pupils can use the clock to add and subtract by counting minutes and hours. For example, if it is currently 10 past the hour, you can ask the children to add five minutes, which is easily achieved on our clocks.
Link to the curriculum
Our learning clocks come with curriculum notes printed on the back, making it easier for you to deliver a detailed and accessible time-telling demonstration that is linked to the curriculum. This ensures that you are teaching your students time in a way that is consistent with the expectations of their education.
The school day
Another effective way to use our learning clocks in the classroom is to link time-telling activities to the school day. Young children are more likely to engage with a concept if they can see how it relates to their own experiences, and using the clock to demonstrate their own timetable is an effective time-teaching strategy. This can be done by demonstrating when lunchtime, breaktime, or lessons begin and end, as well as encouraging them to tell the time of these scheduled activities themselves.
Pair with games
Using learning clocks as part of an educational game is another effective way to engage your students and in learning to tell time. Our TwinTime cards are perfect for this, as you set a time and ask your pupils to replicate it on their own cards, with space for them to also write in the analogue or digital time.
There are several different ways to make this game more engaging and challenging, including having the pupils work in pairs or small groups to see who can replicate the time the fastest, or who can get the most correct answers in a set amount of time. This makes the challenge of learning to tell the time a collaborative and engaging activity that can be shared with friends.
Support students with dyscalculia
For students with dyscalculia, learning to tell the time can be particularly challenging. If you have pupils with dyscalculia in your classroom, then our learning clocks are an excellent resource to support these students with minimal differentiation. The colourful, clear designs of our clocks break down the concept of time into a straightforward pattern that makes it much easier for children with dyspraxia to engage with time and numbers.
Once your students are comfortable with the basics, you can start to introduce more complex concepts, such as fractions and time zones, with our accessible designs. To support students with dyscalculia, it’s important to be patient and to provide plenty of opportunities for practice and reinforcement, which is made easy with our range of classroom resources.
Conclusion
By linking the clock to the curriculum, incorporating the students timetables, pairing it with games, and supporting students with dyscalculia, you can ensure that your students learn to tell the time in a fun and interactive way. By utilising a learning clock in your classroom, your students can develop their time-telling skills while also engaging in teamwork, friendly competition, physical activity, and memory improvement.
Whether you’re in the classroom teaching time to students or at home trying to help your child or grandchild perfect their time telling skills, games are a great way to aid learning. During the Covid-19 pandemic, when children were restricted to learning at home, games provided a fantastic way to develop new skills and enhance existing ones and this is a principle we hope many parents and teachers will take forward, using teaching time games to make learning fun!
How do games support learning?
There are many ways in which games can help students to learn, so if you are thinking about bringing a fun element to your classroom or home activities, here are a few reasons why they are such a good idea:
Games help to encourage student participation.
Games make learning more engaging as you have to interact to play the game, meaning it’s much less likely someone will get left out or feel disengaged.
Playing a game can motivate children and make them more likely to take risks, such as volunteering an answer they are not sure of and wouldn’t otherwise have offered.
Games can help increase focus and attention, which is particularly useful for children with ADHD.
Participating in games can help children’s attitude towards learning, boost their confidence and improve grades.
With so many advantages to games as part of the learning process, it’s time to look at the resources we offer to support classroom activities or help children to learn whilst having fun at home.
What teaching time games can you play to help children learn?
We’ve got teaching time games covered at home, at school and even at after school clubs and activities, so take a look at our range below:
Tell the time card games
From snap to bingo, matching pairs to buddy-up, there are so many different games you can play with our Tell the Time Card Games, that children will be able to practise their time telling skills without even realising it.
We’ve got two different levels of card games – Level 1 for five to seven year olds and Level 2 aimed at eight to eleven year olds. You can order both packs together or just one of the levels, depending on the age of the children you are buying for.
These card games are very popular with parents and grandparents as fun but educational gifts, and they are also used in schools, after school clubs and children’s activity centres.
Take our TwinTime cards and turn them into teaching time clock games thanks to the movable hands and PVC wipe clean surface. You can count forwards and backwards, learn fractions, count in 5s and 10s, practice displaying the time and writing it down. Student cards come individually or in boxes of 10 and teacher cards are sold separately.
In addition to the resources we sell, here are a few ideas to play some teaching time clock games at home or wherever you can find a few willing participants!
⏰Tie time teaching in with your child’s favourite activity – and get them to create a chart showing what time of day they do each activity.
⏰If you have more than one child, make a human clock with one child lying on the floor being the hour hand and the other being the minute hand.
⏰Set a timer for baking a cake, brushing your teeth or getting dressed and talk about how many minutes you are setting the timer for and how long you have left.
You could also choose to put a time teaching clock in your child’s room or buy them their very own wristwatch, so they can practice telling the time wherever they go. Click here to browse our full range of time teaching clocks, watches and games and make learning engaging, memorable and fun.
Telling the time is an important part of the KS1 and KS2 curriculum and anything that can make this learning experience easier and more enjoyable for children is welcomed by teachers and classroom assistants. We’ve recently launched our brand new catalogue outlining our teaching time clocks and resources for schools, so let’s look at some of the highlights.
School clocks
If you are looking for the perfect school clock for the whole class to use, look no further than our time teaching classroom clocks:
Available in a choice of our ‘Past & To’ and ‘12/24 Hour’ time teaching methods and with a blue and red or rainbow face, these clocks are the perfect addition to your classroom walls. Ideal to be used in conjunction with our TwinTime learning aids, these clocks have a large, clear face design to be easily seen across the classroom.
Playground clocks
Learning doesn’t have to stop at breaktime. With our playground clocks, children can practice telling the time whilst they are outside having fun, helping them to understand the concept of when playtime starts and ends. These robust, weatherproof clocks, with their toughened glass lens, feature the same simple time teaching system as our classroom clocks for great continuity of learning.
Teaching aids for telling the time
To make teaching time in the classroom more engaging we’ve designed these TwinTime classroom sets. Each set includes our popular time teaching classroom clock as well as teacher cards and student cards to enable students to practice their skills.
Learning to tell the time at your club
We also recognise that learning to tell the time is an important skill that can be developed in extra-curricular learning, at after school clubs and in the provision of private tutors as well as during activities at Rainbow, Beavers, Brownies and Cubs.
Our wall clocks, outdoor clocks and TwinTime teaching aids are perfect for helping children to learn and practice telling the time as part of your out of school activities.
We’re a family business dedicated to helping families and educators to make time teaching easier and more enjoyable. For over ten years we have been providing our products to parents, grandparents, schools and clubs around the world, helping to educate children and giving them confidence in reading the time. If you need any help in better understanding our products please get in touch with us.
From around the time your child starts school, they will begin learning how to tell the time. Not only is this a key part of their primary education, but it also helps them to grasp the concept of time and gives them confidence and independence.
If your child or grandchild is starting school this year you are probably looking for a kids first watch or clock or to help them tell the time more easily and we’ve got just the products you need!
Download our latest catalogue to browse our range of tell the time wall clocks and watches, suitable for children from around 4 years of age. All of our products feature our simple time teaching system and can help give your child confidence as they learn this important skill.
Best kids first watch to learn to tell the time
The best watches to help children learn to tell time are those that make it easy for them to distinguish between the minutes past and to or the hours in a 12 and 24 hour format.
With our time teaching watches you can choose from our ‘Past & To’ method or our ‘12/24 Hour’ method:
Choose from a rainbow or red and blue watch face and make a choice from our selection of strap colours and your kids first watch is ready to go.
For urban adventurers, or slightly older children who still need help telling the time but want something that looks a little cooler on their wrist, try our camo watches!
Again, you can choose from our ‘Past & To’ or ‘12/24 Hour’ time teaching method to suit your child’s needs and pick either a white or black face and colourful camo strap.
The time teaching shouldn’t stop just because you’re on holiday having fun, so upgrade your child’s time teaching watch to a waterproof one ready for summer splashing. These scratch resistant time teaching watches are waterproof to 50 metres and come with a blue or purple strap:
If your child is fixated on another colour, that’s no problem as we have a range of additional straps to choose from. With 14 different colours, there’s a strap for every mood!
Best wall clock to learn to tell the time
The best wall clocks to help children learn to tell the time are those that clearly display the numbers so they can be easily recognised from a distance. Our wall clocks feature a clear dial, brightly displayed numbers and of course a choice of our two simple time teaching methods ‘ Past & To’ and ‘12/24 Hour’.
We also have a range of alarm clocks to help children know when it’s time for bed and more importantly, when it’s time to wake up 😀.
If you’re looking for the perfect kids first watch, or the best wall clock to help the whole family tell the time, download our latest brochure and get in touch with us if you have any questions.
European customers’ orders on this website are dispatched from the UK. Now that the UK has fully left the EU, this is how we are dealing with European orders:
We no longer collect VAT from European customers. We have reduced the Euro prices on our website to reflect the fact that VAT is not included in the price you pay to EasyRead Time Teacher for our products.
For most orders on this website, we use the postal system to send out your goods. The price we charge for delivery is based on the price we pay to the Post Office, exclusive of tax.
We will provide a customs declaration for each parcel sent out of the UK, which shows the price you have paid for your products.
Depending on the value of your order, you may incur extra charges from your local postal service to cover the cost of EU import duty and sales tax (VAT). In general, shipments valued below 150 Euros should not incur import duty. Most orders on our website are below this 150 Euro threshold. But you may be charged import VAT. Import VAT is typically about 20% of the value of your order. If you are required to pay this charge, your postal service will request payment from you before they deliver your goods.
EasyRead Time Teacher products are also available on Amazon in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, USA, Canada, Mexico and Australia. We are happy for you to buy our products on Amazon if it’s easier for you.
Unfortunately we have had to stop accepting website orders from Eire, because the postal service has regularly failed to deliver orders to our Irish customers. We suggest buying on Amazon.co.uk for delivery to Ireland.
We are looking for a better way of dealing with any EU import tax and duty payable, so that our customers don’t incur extra charges, but we haven’t found a solution yet. We’ll update this guidance once we have a solution.
Lockdown learning might have been fun the first time round, but the novelty is wearing off. Many parents are weary of homeschooling, and trying to juggle their own workload with supporting children in their learning. With the government announcing recently that it will be at least the second week in March before all children start going back to the classroom, parents need all the help they can get to make home learning easy. EasyRead is here to help – with a range of teaching time games and resources to complement what children are learning through their online lessons.
When will your child learn to tell the time at school?
Of course it will vary from school to school and class to class, but in general, children start learning about the time in Year 1, when they begin telling the time on analogue clocks to the hour and half hour. In Year 2 they will move on to telling the time in smaller increments – using quarter part and quarter to the hour and expressing time by drawing the hands on a clock face. In Key Stage 2, children will move on to telling and writing time in 12 and 24 hours, using roman numerals and comparing time in terms of seconds, minutes and hours, before moving on to digital clocks.
All of the resources and time teaching products at EasyRead have been developed by parents, for parents to help children who are learning to tell the time. They are endorsed by teachers and educational professionals as they support curriculum based learning, but also bring an element of fun – which of course makes the learning easier!
Teaching time games
Our Tell The Time Card Games are popular both at home and in the classroom and bring a competitive element to learning to tell time. You can play snap, bingo or pairs to name but a few, and of course the whole family can join in. Each pack contains 60 playing cards showing 15 different times of the day (4 of the same time), enabling children to have fun matching up and recognising the same time. There are also 2 levels of cards to choose from.
These teaching time games are ideal for use in those ‘free’ lessons where children can choose an educational activity, or for after school fun with the rest of the family.
Our TwinTime Cards have long been a popular teaching resource in schools. Made from high gloss write on wipe off PVC sheets, they enable teachers to configure the clock hands to a certain time and express in 12 and 24 hours or past and to format and for students to convert into the other on their own cards.
Just because children are learning at home and not in the classroom, doesn’t mean you can’t take on the role of teacher and challenge children to write the time and practice their time telling skills.
Make learning a rewarding experience with our Tell the Time Superstar stickers – free with every purchase of our TwinTime Cards this February!
Free resources for teaching time to kids
And for all those parents tearing their hair out over homeschooling, we have a range of free time teaching resources. Here’s EasyRead’s Sue Shackleton explaining how they work:
After a long break due to the Coronavirus pandemic, schools are finally set to re-open in England and Wales from the start of September, ready for the autumn academic term. With such a long break from education for many children, it is going to be hard getting back into the routine of classroom learning and getting up early in the mornings ready for the school day ahead. That’s where our products can help.
At EasyRead our time teaching clocks and watches are the perfect back to school gift for young children who are learning to tell the time. Not only are they a great reference point to support classroom learning, but they can also help your child to keep track of the time during the school day – for example what time to get up, what time they need to be ready to leave and of course home time!
Let’s review some of our most popular products that can support your child to learn to tell the time:
Time Teaching Wall Clocks
If you are looking for a first clock for your child, then our EasyRead time teaching wall clocks tick all the boxes.
They are:
Clear and easy to read
Silent – no ticking hands
Feature our simple time teaching system – choose from the 24 hour or ‘past and to’ method
You can choose from a rainbow, white or red and blue face to accommodate your child’s preferences or the colour scheme of the room where you are going to hang the clock.
The best way to learn a new skill is to immerse yourself in it, so by wearing a watch your children can take time telling with them wherever they go.
Our time teacher watches are available in a wide range of colours, with a number of different strap styles to choose from including bright colours and camouflage designs. They are:
Battery operated
Available in water resistant or waterproof varieties
Designed to fit wrists from 12cm to 18cm in circumference
Our watches make the perfect back to school gift and we are sure your child will love showing off their new watch to their friends in the playground.
It’s not all about the hard work, learning to tell the time can also be a fun activity that all the family can enjoy. Who can resist a game of snap with our Tell The Time Cards?
The perfect after school game, our Tell the Time Cards let the learning continue in a fun, family oriented way.
Coming Soon – our time teaching alarm clocks
We’re delighted to announce that the wait is almost over, as our popular time teaching alarm clocks will be back in stock very soon. With silent hands and built in night light, our alarm clocks are the perfect bedside companion for little learners.
We also offer a range of teaching resources to help out in the classroom so please click here if you are a teacher looking for new ways to make time teaching fun.
Wishing you all a safe and happy return to school and we hope our products help to make learning a little easier.
If your experience has been anything like ours, home schooling our seven-year-old daughter during lockdown has consisted of snatched bursts of time in which to run quickly through the work that’s been set by school. And nowhere close to all the work that’s been set. Just a tiny scratch of the surface.
It hasn’t quite been the structured, focussed-yet-fun and harmonious ideal most of us hoped for when schools closed on 20th March.
But there are a few things I’m really pleased to say she’s mastered without being directed to by her class teacher.
She’s now a blur on two wheels since she graduated to a bigger bike when all this began.
By following an online program, she’s almost as quick as me at touch typing.
But most useful of all, is that she’s now able to tell the time.
As an ex-primary teacher, I know how difficult it is for kids to learn to tell the time. It’s a process that starts in year one and continues well into key stage two. At the start of lockdown, I put it at the top of my list of things we could try tackling together.
Trawling the internet for suitable resources, I found the printable teaching clock from EasyRead Time Teacher. After printing and cutting out the clock face and moveable hands, then sticking them on card, we were ready to go.
What I like about this clock is the extra information it gives. As well as the hour numbers, it shows the minute numbers around the edge, the past and to sides, as well as o’clock, half past, quarter past and to.
Most clocks, like the ones used in schools, show the hour numbers and divisions every five minutes. It’s complicated for children to count in fives, then ones, to work out how many minutes past or to it is. They get the two sides of the clock muddled up. They get the hands muddled up. Then they’re just getting it before it’s time to move on and start a new maths unit. So it’s back to square one months later, when time’s back on the timetable again.
I was intrigued by ERTT’s ‘3 steps to telling the time’, which was printed on the same sheet as the clock. The company claim that children can learn to tell the time in one lesson by following the steps. I was sceptical, but tried them out on my daughter nevertheless. They go like this:
Read the number at the end of the minute hand
See which side the minute hand is on: past or to
Read the number at the end of the short hand and put them altogether.
To our mutual amazement, she read the time straight away.
We tried another one and it was just as easy. There was a moment of silence as I tried to work out whether it should be that easy while she looked shocked that she’d found such a simple short cut.
We moved the hands to a few more positions and repeated the three steps, sure to find a glitch at some point. But a glitch was not forthcoming. It’s a fool-proof method and I still can’t work out why more schools haven’t adopted it yet.
My daughter was fizzing with a sense of achievement as she ran off, brandishing her clock, to show her Dad.
We’ve stuck the clock on the fridge and refer to it all the time. I make times on the clock for her to read or shout out times that she has to make by moving the hands. She likes copying the time from our kitchen clock and making it on her printed one.
Talking about quarters and halves came up naturally and I could see that she was gradually building up her understanding of how clocks work.
There were a few joyful light bulb moments. One of which was working out on her own that once the minute hand reaches 30, the minutes start counting backwards as the hand moves towards o’clock again.
I know that self-initiated discoveries like this lead to much ‘deeper’ learning than those prompted by a teacher. I’m glad she’s got to grips with time in her own way and at her own pace.
Our daughter is now the proud owner of a real ERTT clock, prominently displayed on her bedroom wall. She knows what time she’s going to bed and what time she wakes up. She and her little brother do timed 1-minute challenges – possible only because, unlike many kids’ clocks, this one has a hand that shows the seconds.
But I’m sure most parents would agree there are downsides to children knowing how to tell the time. Parents hold more cards when their little ones are oblivious to the time. Fancy getting the kids to bed earlier than usual? Forget about it. Saying you’ll play schools in five minutes, but it’ll actually be 20? That won’t wash either.
But on balance, the confidence and sense of control that comes from understanding time is worth losing a little downtime for. And if I really need it? Well the hands can be adjusted…
