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Teach him to tell the time
Once your child understands the notion of time, he only expects one thing: to know how to read the time himself, like a grown-up!
Time: a very complex notion!
“When is tomorrow?” Is it morning or afternoon? »What child, around the age of 3, has not inundated his parents with these questions? This is the beginning of his awareness of the notion of time. The succession of events, large and small, helps to give toddlers the feeling of the passage of time. “It is only around six-seven that the child acquires a total understanding of the order in which time unfolds” explains psychologist Colette Perrichi *.
To find their way around, the young child refers to the highlights of the day: breakfast, lunch, bath, going to or coming home from school, etc.
“Once he manages to classify the events in a temporal order, the notion of duration is still quite abstract”, adds the psychologist. A cake that bakes in twenty minutes or 20 hours means nothing to a little one. What he wants to know is if he can eat it right away!
5/6 years: a step
It is generally from his fifth birthday that a child wishes to learn to tell the time. There is no point in rushing things by giving him a watch without asking. Your toddler will quickly make you understand when he is ready! Anyway, there is no rush: at school, learning the hour only occurs in CE1.
* The why of the why- Ed. Marabout
From fun to practical
The board game
“When I was 5, my son asked me to explain the time to him. I gave him a board game so that he could find his way around at different times of the day: 7am we get up to go to school, 12pm we have lunch… Then, thanks to the cardboard clock of the game, I explained to him the functions of the hands and learned how many minutes there are in an hour. At each highlight of the day, I would ask him “what time is it?” What should we do now? At 14pm, we’ll have to do the shopping, are you checking ?! ” He liked that because he had a responsibility. He was doing like a boss! To reward him, we gave him his first watch. He was so proud. He came back to CP being the only one who knew how to tell the time. So he tried to teach others. Result, everyone wanted a nice watch! “
Advice from Edwige, a mom from the Infobebes.com forum
The educational watch
“When my child asked us to learn the time at age 6, we found an educational watch, with three different colored hands for seconds, minutes (blue) and hours (red). The minute digits are also in blue and the hour digits in red. When he looks at the little blue hour hand, he knows which number to read (in blue) and ditto for the minutes. Now you don’t need this watch anymore: it can easily tell the time anywhere! “
Tip from a mom from the Infobebes.com forum
The perpetual calendar
Often appreciated by children, perpetual calendars also offer time learning. What day is it ? What will the date be tomorrow? What weather is it ? By offering them concrete benchmarks to find their way through time, the perpetual calendar helps children answer all these everyday questions.
Some reading
Clock books remain an ideal method of making learning enjoyable. A little bedtime story and your little one will fall asleep with numbers and needles in their heads!
Our selection
— What time is it, Peter Rabbit? (Ed. Gallimard youth)
For each stage of Peter Rabbit’s day, from getting up to bedtime, the child must move the hands, following the time indications.
— To tell the time. (Ed. Usborne)
By spending a day on the farm with Julie, Marc and the farm animals, the child must move the needles for each story told.
— Forest friends (Youth hatchet)
Thanks to the moving hands of the clock, the child accompanies the friends of the forest on their adventure: at school, during recess, bath time …