Best resources for a 6-year-old learning to tell the time?

[HooverPhobic]

My y1 child is bright but so far attempts to teach him to tell the time (analogue clock) haven't clicked at all. He has an actual clock that has '5 past' 'quarter to' etc under the numbers.

Any really good video series or interactive games etc that will teach from scratch? He responds well to things like e.g. the Maths Factor which is a course/game that's very thorough in explaining the concepts. I looked on BBC BiteSize but all I could find was a song about 'time', not the actual mechanics of telling the time!

I think children don't learn fractions or time tables until their third year. I don't think learning to tell the time makes sense until they know this.

Don't try and rush it. Get very good at o'clock, then half past, then quarter past and quarter to, and then tackle fives and tens.

He must be able to count in fives and have a solid understanding of halves and quarters to do the tricky ones.

The best thing to do is to buy him his own watch and clock, and refer to them all the time.

Good point. He does actually know a bit of fractions and lots of tables (definitely knows his 5x) - I wonder if it's a bit confusing with time being in blocks of 60 rather than the usual 10s and 100s!

Yes, moving on from base 10 confuses them so much. Time is horribly hard. There's a very funny old sketch on Youtube where someone attempts to teach a child to tell the time.

We had a "What's the time Mr Clock" app on kindle to teach quite a few years ago.

The settings were for hours, then hours & half hours.... and so on. Breaking it down in logical chunks. It had both analogue and 24 hour settings.

I'd suggest something like that to start learning.

www.orchardtoys.com/buy/tell-the-time-game_16.htm?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIucbshtnx8AIVCIfVCh1DmQWxEAQYAiABEgJwSfD_BwE

This was a hit with ours.

@DollyMixtureLulus

Don't try and rush it. Get very good at o'clock, then half past, then quarter past and quarter to, and then tackle fives and tens.

He must be able to count in fives and have a solid understanding of halves and quarters to do the tricky ones.

The best thing to do is to buy him his own watch and clock, and refer to them all the time.

Thanks, this seems a good approach! Found a nice looking watch that has 'past' and 'to' in different colours.

Y1 teacher here.

We teach them to be fluent (and be able to reason) in o'clock first, then half past.

Then (Y2) quarter past and quarter to before moving onto 5 minute intervals.

He needs to understand the concept of a second, minute and hour for it to 'make sense'.

Thinking about activities that take seconds / minutes / hours helps children understand the concept of time.

Thanks cliffdiver going to try this with DH (aged 46) to see if he can develop a sense of time....

I home educate and don't teach my children how to read an analogue clock until they know their 5x tables and have a basic understanding of fractions. They pick it up very quickly after that.

That said, MIL bought them the Orchard Tell The Time game mentioned above and they enjoy that. My 5-year-old is picking up some clock-reading skills from that.

They have been able to read digital clocks since they were 4 or so - they have one each in their rooms and they aren't allowed to wake us or go downstairs before 7:30am.

@traumatisednoodle

Thanks cliffdiver going to try this with DH (aged 46) to see if he can develop a sense of time....

This thread is really helpful.. thanks :-)