Telling the time with a traditional clock

[JerkintheMerkin]

How important do you think it is to learn this skill? I've spoken with quite a few of my DD's friends (she's 10) who can't actually tell the time unless it's digital. In fairness she can't either. I've tried numerous times to explain it to her and purposely ask her the time in "clock speak" as opposed to "digital speak" but she has never got it and says what's the point when she mainly sees the time in digital. Shall I plough ahead until one day the penny drops or should I just say the time as if we're in the army? "Get up for school at oh-600 hours"

You'd think, but so many people are cash free these days. A lot of people do those pre-loaded cards for teenagers. Is is called Go Henry? I don't know, I don't have older ones but I know a lot have given up with cash completely. So many places don't even accept cash anymore either. Such a shame that handling cash/dealing with change could soon be a thing of the past. Another lost skill.

My 12yo was y3 duri ng covid so missed a lot of the time stuff that year. Really highlighted during sats.
wd have a n analogue clo ck in the lounge but dc ne ved look at it. They do know 10am as snack time.
part of issue with time is th e multiple naming so
past and to --- why not only ever past??
as with quarter past half past and quarter to

i think it os a general problem woth primary maths it seems to be term 1 x, term 2 y. But little of that topic otherwise in the year. Some schools seem to do mixed tests.
Secondary dc goes to does tests of all the topics from sept. Though doesnt seem to revise the others in class.

mine annoyingly wont wear watches

@Growlybear83 miles have had debit cards since they were 8. My husband and I opened Monzo accounts and they had the cards so I don't have to pay go Henry fees. If they get given cash (by nanny every bloody week) it is promptly given to me and I transfer it over and I end up with cash I don't want. They're older now and have had nationwide accounts since turning 11.

It's an ever increasing problem. It's just a major lack of familiarity with analogue clocks.

With my own DC, I made sure every room in the house had an analogue clock from toddlerhood. Lots of time board games, etc.

I'm a secondary school languages teacher, and have to teach Y7 and Y8 pupils how to say the time in French, German and Spanish! I do often feel as though I'm teaching some of them how to do it from scratch.

In particular they have trouble with minutes or a quarter to the hour. If you tell them to write 'quarter to 5' in digital format, lots will write 5:45. It really doesn't help that in German half five means half past four (i.e. half-way to 5)!

It's much easier to estimate duration with analogue. "How long is it till lunch time?" invoves doing sums with digital, but can be visualised as a segment of the circle on analogue.

The clocks in the exam halls at my university are analogue and they're not allowed watches any more because of smart watches. They can ask the invigilator but obviously that's not idea. They need to learn.

Get her an analogue watch, encourage her to change her phone, put analogue clocks all over the house.

But tbh if she's not getting it despite your efforts already, I'd consider whether there is something like dyslexia or similar going on.

I'm currently watching 'the twelve' one scene I noticed clocks in the background, a sort of wall display of various clocks.

I don’t even have kids, but I’m 24 and when I was in both primary and secondary, there were large analogue clocks everywhere. Surely kids sort of learn from that? I.e, bell rings at 11am for break, 1pm for lunch, is that not sufficient enough for them to grasp the basics? Genuinely curious!

I see lots of teenagers who struggle. They can usually do it if they really think about it but it's not like a glance at the time thing for them like it is for me. My own kids are younger and we are teaching them at home as well as what they do at school but they are finding it tough.

I suppose it's like my abacus skills being a bit limited!

No! I refer to the clock daily when I'm teaching and whilst a few might get it that way most don't.

I didn't learn to tell the time til I was 12. No developmental issues.