How to start teaching dd to tell the time?

[Bumperlicious]

DD1 (3) has started asking about time, e.g what time will daddy be home?

I'm wondering if this is an indication that she is ready to learn to tell the time and if so how do you go about it? What age do they usually learn this?

in infant school normally

dd has a book with a clock face in it and each page deals with breakfast at 7am etc, she loves it and now knows most o'clock times. she is 3.3.
i am looking for a learning wall clock but have only seen alarm clock vesions at the moment.

I'll have a look for a book, thanks. I'm not trying to push her or anything, in fact we have been spectacularly crap at teaching her stuff, but I just noticed her asking about time a bit and thought she might be ready.

DS1 got fascinated at nursery. He knew numerals already, so uses the clock on his wall and a jigsaw one he has. He generally gets quarters, halves and hours, and is learning some of the others. Think it's rote learning though, he's not really 'telling' the time just building up patterns (at infant school they'd treat it more as a skill). It's dead useful for getting him to bed-he looks at the clock and gets in (although his room has a somewhat variable timezone as a result of occasional parental tiredness).

What he doesn't really have is a sense of time though, which may be what your DD is more interested in-basically I'm not sure he really gets how long it is between 5 and 6 o'clock. When I was little my Dad set up an elaborate system of timed lights for this-initially just one in my room that went on when I could leave it and bother my parents, then some which changed over for morning, afternoon, evening etc. My Mum says she talked in terms of units of Bagpuss (in the time it takes to wtach six bagpusses). That was probably far more useful in helping me gain a sense of time passing through the day than a clock.

Total faffing nightmare to set up though, my DCs going to have to cope without.

I think a sense of time needs to come first. Start telling her when it's 10 minutes to tea time/bath time etc. Also when it's half an hour till bedtime. The really important thing though is to be accurate! Don't say it's 10 minutes when it's going to be half an hour. Show her where the hands on the clock are and say "in 10 minutes the big hand will be on the ... (point to where it will be)and then it will be tea time"

We have bought our dd a Peppa Pig watch, she loves it. She takes it off carefully every night and puts it back on every morning, very sweet!!

She is 3.9 and reads the time according to the small hand, so if it's 4.15 she will say it's 4 o'clock etc.

The watch comes with a clip on face that then teaches them the quarter, half parts which we'll introduce when she's ready.

At the moment though, I think it is more about feeling grown up with her watch!

ds could tell time justafter his 3rd birthday - he had a cardboard clock with plastic hand from elc

he pretty much taught himself