How to teach children the time

Learn to read the time on the clock is one of the first skills that children must learn to grow in independence and personal autonomy. And although it is true that children have a lot of retentiveness and take the concepts to flight, at first understand how a clock works can be confusing. That's why we tell you some tips on how to teach children the time .

Teach you how to count

If the girl or boy is still too small to have learned to count in school, you can teach her how to do it up to 60, for digital watches, or at least up to 12, for hand-held clocks. Start counting together with your fingers, until you understand the passage from a few tens to others. Then you can turn this learning into a game, for example with cards that have the written number, which must be recognized to obtain a reward.

Hand clocks

Build a large cardboard or paper clock with the numbers drawn and use pencils, rods or straws as hands. Explain that the short hand marks the hours and long minutes, and sees moving and explaining the hours and minutes counting five by five: two and five, two and ten, two fifteen, and so on. Now let the children themselves take the test and turn the hands trying to guess what time they mark.

Digital watches

The first concept that must be explained is the two ways of reading the hours in digital clocks and the difference between AM and PM

Explain that the hours can be counted 12 in 12 or 24 in 24 and that in the watch you can choose the form that you like. If the child is very small, it will be easier to read the hours only 12 in 12.