When did your dc fully learn to tell the time?

[Peaceflower]

Not sure if this is the best place for this, but couldn't think where else to post.

I came off the phone to my MIL and have been pondering this since. My ds aged 7 very proudly told her he can now tell the time properly, as she buys a watch for each grandchild who learns how to. She then told me this was the average age children learned.
My dd was about 9 before she could fully tell the time.
It started me thinking, what is the average age your ds learned to tell the time? My ds has been able to tell the hour since he was 3. By the time he was 4 he could do half past. But he'd been stuck there ever since as he always got confused whether a time was "x past" or "x to". But last week we had another try and he has totally cracked it, as he says. He can fully tell the time, as in "x mins to y o'clock" etc.

Just curious to know,that's all.

Although they could do "o'clock" and "half-past" at 5+, they took longer to really get telling the time.

I reckon DD was probably 9 and DS was 7.

It meant I could no longer kid them about what time bed-time was

Message withdrawn

ds was 4 he has always cracked anything to do with numbers the first time being shown

dilemma, me too!
well, i was 10 i think, but close enough

i was def the last one in my year at school, i just did not get it
one day the teacher got me by myself and said look, we're going to ahve one last go at teaching you.
and suddenkly it just all made sense!!!

DD2 is 7 and has it pegged.

DD1 is 9 and still stabs vaguely in the direction of the correct hour. I'm trying to assume this means she's set for a future where minions and lackeys tell the time for her, but sometimes reality strikes.

I wonder whether it's anything to do with having a proper concept of time? DS1 is 4 and can tell you when it's 5 o'clock (because he knows he's allowed to watch CBeebies after 5) but hasn't got much apart from that apart from what the numbers are and a vague notion of the big hand and the small hand. But I don't think he has a full grasp of the whole idea of time either yet, so I don't suppose that telling the time is very easy until that falls into place.

ds is 3.8 and can tell the hour and also half past (or thirty past ) and he is keen to learn more, his strength is numbers though educationally.

DD was still not very confident at 9

DS is 3.5, and is pretty good - fine on hours and half hours, and getting past and to sorted out fairly rapidly

Ds1 was 6-7 I think
dd was 3.5 know all 5 minute intervals
ds2 is 2.5 and knows o clock and half past
dd has an amazing memory as she is visually impaired she could not get the concept of it per se but could tell time very accurately.
So telling time and understanding time are separate and I think 6-7 is when the curriculum teach it?

Looks like there is a wide spread of ages when children learn to fully tell time. My ds did time in maths when he was in year 1, but so far in year 2 this topic hasn't come up yet. I think at some poit they cover the subject again, applying time rather than just learning to tell time.

Thanks for sharing your experiences

Interesting - the people whose kids learned young (4 or under), how did you go asbout this? Have been considering broaching this with dd who is 3.5, but she is a bit wobbly still on numbers (know most up to 10, but still gets confused occasionally - yet knows all letters, both upper and lower case. Bizarre!) It seems like such a difficult concept, but would probably make our life easier if she could do it!

dd was 7.

9 and 8 year olds have only got it properly in this last year, in terms of knowing both digital and analogue and not getting it wrong much. I thought they were quite bad at it (we've never bothered practising it much) but 8yo tells me she's the best in her class at it.

5yo can do hours, half hours, quarter hours, that's about it I think. she can't do digital.

DS was 4.5, he announced at the beginning of the summer holiday that he wanted to learn (control freak generally, i think he decided he liked the idea of being able to check when things would happen in class and at home).

I figured the easiest way would be to find a watch with the "past" and "to" markings on. it took me a while - lots of the so called "time teacher" watches have numbers from 0 to 60 around the edge, which is less than helpful. In the end I got this one for the princely sum of £4.50. It worked a treat (DS the kind of child who learns best if you explain it once and then leave him to it / let him ask questions rather than trying to "teach"). I recommended it to someone with a 7 year old who was having trouble and he picked it up quite quickly as well.

DS can now tell the time on my watch - which doesn't have numbers. I think looking at something on a regular basis / having it on your wrist helps.

Thanks legalalien.

DD was trying to subvert my attempts to prevent her from watching too much tv.
Plus she could read early too so I wrote down
5=5 past
10= 10 past
15=quarter past and so on
on a sheet next to the clock and she just memorised it.
She is 7 now and can do 24 hr clocks, how long is it until.. digital and roman numeral clocks, it seems to be her "thing" if you will

Oddly my eldest who is profoundly gifted refused to learn to tell the time properly until he understood the concept of time properly

The 2 yr old GAH he is like his big brother and needs to know everything NOW...