tellin the time

[griffalo2]

life would be so much easier if my ds(5) could tell the time and understand the days of week.
Is he too young to learn?
Does anyone have some fun tips i could use to help him learn?

Is he reception or yr1? My dd (Yr1) has been doing this at school recently. They have songs which help them remember days of the week and months of the year. They also write the date and day of the week on the top of their written work.
Regarding telling the time, they started with x o'clock then added in half past, then quarter past and quarter to. They haven't done the bits in between the quarters yet, although my dd understands that it goes up in chunks of 5 minutes and that there are 60 minutes in an hour. I think it helps if they can count in 5's before trying to teach them to tell the time, but am prepared to be corrected on that....

hes in reception.i did think about the counting in fives bit,would be very confusing i think if he couldnt.
I dont think i learnt until i was about 9 or 10

My DS1 is in Yr 2 and they have been doing time recently. He finds it difficult especially as they have been doing analogue and digital.
I have got the 'tell the time' game from Orchard Toys which is helping. And they also sell a clock with moveable hands that can go on your fridge, which is also good- you can probably get that sort of thing elsewhere tho.
I think reception is a bit early for time telling IMO.
My DS2 has just got the months and he is in Yr 1 he could do days of the week last year.

he knows the days he just doesnt know the order they go in,i try to say 'its monday tomorrow,back to school'or something like that,but he just hasnt grasped it.
I went into elc today but i find that place useless lately,nothing educational wise.

IME FS2 is a bit young to expect a child to tell the time.

If he is struggling then I would leave it. Plenty of yr 2s can't do it.

For days of the week, I used this song:
(to the tune of Frere Jacques)

Days of the week,
Days of the week,
Sing with me,
Sing with me.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Saturday
A day to play.

With time, I found it helped to focus on the minutes hand only first (5 past, 10 past, 15 past, etc). Then go onto the hour hand.

I found it worked to only bring in the terms like quarter past, quarter to, half past once the rest was solid as I think it's these terms that confuse. So once the 15 minutes past 2 was solid, only then I'd say, "And by the way, 15 minutes past has a special name, we call it quarter past because it is a quarter of the clock." etc

i would worry yet he is very young,
my dd is in y1 and has only just got to grips with what order the days of the week go in.
as for time she can just about do it to the nearest 15mins but is not close to being confident with it.
dont stress her will laern.

He is very young.

DD1 was obsessed by knowing the days of the week and the time as she liked to know what she was going to be doing that day and how long she would have to wait for things, so she knew these at a very early age

DS2 doesn't share the same obsession so I taught him the order of the days of the week by asking him to tell me them every day in the car on the way to school. After a couple of weeks he got it perfectly. In terms of the time, he can do o'clock and half past so we just work in terms of "just after...." or "just before...." and that seems to work OK at the moment until he learns some more at school.

Hi, I have some great clock face stampers - you can draw on your own hands, and also some telling the time dice - My girls love these, my 4 year old can manage the hours and half past - I get quizzed constantly on days of the week, is it PE today etc by DS2 (4). DS1 (6) is just not interested!! Could do with some kind of chart so that we can change it each morning!!

I agree that songs are useful for days of the week. Could you have a chart on the fridge with days of the week on, sing the song and move an arrow every day to show what day it was? Reception is early to learn all the skills for telling time - I'd start with the "o'clocks" and something like the orchard toys telling the time game. Having a toy clock to work with can help too but I'd recommend getting a geared one ( Where the hour and minute hand are geared so go round in the same way as a proper clock). You can get teaching/toy ones like this but they are more expensive.

You could also teach time awareness by focusing on "ten minutes till tea/bed time etc" and talk about how long things take eg length of favourite TV programme, how long it takes to walk to school etc. If you are saying something like "ten minutes more play then bath-time" you could set a kitchen timer to go off after 10 minutes so he can get a better feel for what it means.

My son taught himself at 4 but he loves number problems. Not that he was perfectly accurate til 6 or so. My DD is currently 4 and seems a long way away from any time telling, we haven't got counting up to 20 right yet! So I reckon it will be at least a couple of years before she can achieve this.

My son is doing telling the time again at school this week - in year 3 they need to be able to do 5 minutes to and 5 minutes past the hour, ie, 5 past, 10 past, quarter past, etc. In year 2 they needed to master quarter to and quarter past, in year 1 half past and in year R the o'clocks. So perhaps this is the average for kids? (Not that the national curriculum seems to be even mildly related to my particular kids' abilities - it's either far ahead or far behind, depending on the topic!)

Google Aramazoo it's brilliant!

it would help by not havin to warn him about every little thing so he doesnt get cofused or argue with me.he constantly asks have i got school tomorrow.or on weekend asks why cant i go to school.hes very keen to learn

My DC 1 could "tell the time" in terms of hours only when she was 2.5 - but this was essential as she used to get up ridiculously early and I taught her she was not allowed to get up til the little hand pointed to the 6!

She seemed very ahead of her peers at 2.5 and recognised her numbers 1-9...

BUT

She is 5 now and still can only tell the time in terms of hours and half past, sometimes she seems to have got quarter to and past but then she forgets it. She can't count in 5s yet so there seems no point following up on it, and no need really, though she is fascinated by time and always checking the time on the digital clock on the digi box! I do find it useful that she knows she has to get her coat and boots on at 8am on a school day for example...

It is quite easy for kids to learn to recite days of the week (DC1 age 5 can too but only since this year) but this doesn't always have much meaning - DC1 knows what she does on some days and that there is no school on Sat and Sun, but never seems to actually remember what day it is today...

If there is a practical reason why the OP's DC needs to tell the time a digital clock might help or just looking at hours on analogue, depending on the purpose for which it would be useful...

My 3.5 year old is not interested in time and only reliably recognises the numbers 1-3 and so nowhere near ready to read a clock of any kind, so all kids are different and ready at different ages! He always wants to know what day it is but can't recite the days and doesn't really attach much meaning to the name of the day.

gruffalo2 maybe a pictorial (or part picture part words if he reads well) weekly timetable/ calendar, stuck somewhere he can look at it easily any time, is what you need for that particular purpose.

thank you for this thread - DS has known the days, months o clocks and half pasts for a while but we seem stuck there. He knows his 5x and will sometimes get that right but the idea of "x to" rather than "x past" is still beyond his grasp at 5. I really want those rubber stampers as I remember using them as a child - does anyone know where to get them?