Preparations 

Learn by the hour. Learn to explain half an hour. Learning to understand a watch with a cardboard model-picture

Parents and child psychologists agree that abstract concepts are the hardest things to explain to toddlers. Teaching to understand time is not always easy, even for an elementary school student, not to mention younger children. But meanwhile, this is a necessary practical skill, and everyone will have to master it. Especially for you, dear parents, our article is about how to teach a child to understand the time by the clock.

Formation of the concept of time

With normal development, a child from infancy notices the change of day and night. You will be surprised, but even very little ones are really aware of the daily routine. A small child easily learns to fall asleep and wake up at about the same time. At the same time, the baby still cannot understand that it is supposed to go to bed at 21:00, he just feels the desire to sleep.

After about the first birthday of a child, you can begin to unobtrusively introduce the concept of time. Use in everyday speech the designations: "morning", "day", "evening" and "night". Toddlers over two years old can be told about the days of the week.

How to teach a child to understand time without difficulty? With preschoolers, you can safely make plans for the day. Start by defining the main activities separately for the morning, afternoon and evening. If parents often indicate some time intervals in conversations with a child: “let's go for a walk in two hours” or “you have to clean up in 10 minutes” - the baby will remember these words very soon. But do not forget that because of the abstractness of the concept, knowing the names of the units of its measurement alone will not teach you to feel time.

When is the right time to get acquainted with the clock?

Teachers advise starting classes with watches only when the child knows the numbers well enough and knows how to count. The approximate age for a visual acquaintance with the passage of time is 6 years. Before you understand the time by the clock, test his knowledge. To learn a mechanical watch, your baby needs to be able to count to at least 100 and perform mathematical operations such as addition and subtraction. Also, the child should not confuse the numbers. It is very good if the baby knows what a half, a quarter is, and freely operates with the temporary concepts of "before" and "after".

Theoretically, it is possible to acquaint a child with watches earlier, at the age of 4-5 years. Brief stories about the division of the dial, the course of the hour hand and the basic principles of determining time will suffice. Just do not demand from the baby that he immediately learns to call the exact time with minutes or perform exercises designed for first graders. Conduct classes unobtrusively and in a playful way.

Mechanical and electronic watches

In our age of high technology, traditional clockwork with a dial and hands is not available in every home. A logical question arises: “Should a child be taught to understand time using a mechanical watch at all?” The answer is unequivocally affirmative. Only a classic watch with a dial will help you understand the passage of time and clearly demonstrate the number of hours in a day. Don't worry, over time you will easily explain how to understand what time it is on electronic displays. And it will be much easier to do this if the child is already familiar with classic watches. Be sure to purchase a wall-mounted timer with a clock face. A great idea is to additionally give your child a personal beautiful wrist classic watch. You will also need a visual aid for learning and playing.

We make watches with our own hands

How to teach a child to understand time by the clock, you ask? It is very useful for learning this wisdom to use a toy clock. You can buy them in the toy department or make your own. Take on the manufacture of this craft with your child. Cut out a large dial from thick cardboard. Mark it like a real clock, you can optionally add decorative decorations to the background. Cut out two arrows from cardboard of a contrasting color, it is important that they differ in length and width. Attach them to the watch face with a button. Fix the structure in such a way that the arrows move easily.

In the process of work, explain to the child the basic principles of the real clock, if you have not talked about it before. In order to successfully interact with this device, you should know that each hour consists of 60 minutes, and the day consists of 24 hours.

The first acquaintance with the clock

Where to start learning? During the first lesson on the passage of time, tell your child about the division of the clock face and the hands. Set the minute hand to 12 and show “even hours” (1:00, 2:00, etc.). It will be difficult for a child to immediately realize the passage of time, reinforce your story with associations that are understandable to him. For example, remind him that 3:00 is lunch time and his favorite cartoons start at 5:00. Ask the child to independently set some time within the "even hours". Having achieved success at this stage, you can safely move on to the next. Explain that the minute hand makes a full circle in 1 hour. Try to set different times and ask the child to determine it.

Tell me what time is it?

In order to teach a child to determine the time by the clock, it is necessary to regularly draw his attention to the dial. We hope you already have a classic chronometer hanging in your living room. In addition to regular “lessons,” make a habit of casually asking, “What time is it?” - or ask: "Notice 10 minutes." In no case do not scold the child for mistakes and do not be lazy to once again repeat the basics of hourly literacy with him.

How to teach a child to understand the time by the clock during thematic classes? Take the toy dial. Ask your child to set a specific time. If the child counts well, you can complicate the task. Offer to show where the arrows will be after 10, 15, 20 minutes from the set time.

Making a schedule for the day

How to teach a child to understand the time by the clock? Playing in such a difficult matter can help to achieve incredible success. Doubt? Check it out in person. It's time to improve the homemade manual for Together with your child, cut out small cards from thick paper. Choose a main character and on each paper square draw a specific moment from his day. Let it be a funny little man, a fairy tale character or some cute animal. Connect your imagination and try to come up with a case for every hour. Let the hero brush his teeth on one card, walk on the other, have dinner on the third. As soon as the set of pictures is ready, you can start playing. Set the time on the dial, and let the child select the appropriate picture.

The second version of the game is to draw your own daily routine. In the evening or in the morning, spread the cards around the clock face, planning the sequence of actions for the day. It is advisable to somehow fix the pictures and check yourself during the day, not forgetting to move the arrows.

quarter and half

In using classical clocks to determine the time, it is difficult to do without such concepts as “a quarter of an hour” or “half an hour”. Once your little one is familiar enough with the dial, hands, and numbers, it's time to explain these conventional units of time as well. How to teach a child to use a clock and understand time divided into halves and quarters of an hour? Remember that children perceive any explanation best when combining audio and graphic presentation of information. Draw several clock faces on a piece of paper. Let the clock show 15 minutes on one of them, and 30 minutes on the other. For clarity, you can shade the segments from the number 12 to the one where the arrow stopped. Explain to your child the meaning of such common expressions as “twenty minutes to one” or “fifteen minutes to.”

It is better to introduce a child to any new global topic in the format of daily mini-lessons. Do not demand school discipline from the kid, it is better to unobtrusively invite him to play with the clock. If the child is not in the mood or the activity is not productive, end earlier than planned. Remember: learning to read, write, or watch is not productive if it becomes an unpleasant chore. The most helpful tip on how to teach your child to understand by the clock is to keep the subject interesting. Try to talk about the time regularly. Tell about the types of clocks, show a stopwatch. Teach your child to feel the time and invent your own units. For example, you can remind your baby that the walk lasts 1.5 hours, and his favorite cartoon - 15 minutes.

How to teach a child to determine the time by the clock and consolidate the result?

In order to qualitatively consolidate new knowledge, they need to be regularly applied in practice. Let your child keep track of time on their own and explain to them how important it is to be punctual. Let the baby remind you from time to time what time you need to leave the house. Together, you can track the duration of some processes. Such an activity is sure to captivate the child. Offer to record by the clock how long the food is being prepared, the bath is being taken, the TV show is on. This simple exercise is great for learning to feel the time. Very soon, your baby will learn to plan his day on his own and, looking at the clock, check with the implementation of this plan. After all, knowing that the process of getting ready for a walk lasts 10 minutes, he will be able to put away the toys in time and prepare for the walk.

We hope that our tips on how to teach your child time on the clock will help and be useful.

To be able to plan your time, and, consequently, to understand it, is useful not only for adults, but also for children. But the perception of time is subjective and depends on various factors. So, it is worth the child to a new or interesting activity, and it flies by unnoticed. But when performing uninteresting tasks or in the agonizing expectation of any events, even fifteen minutes seem like an eternity.

In addition to subjectivity, the understanding of time is also complicated by abstractness: it is impossible to touch or feel it, but it exists and each of us feels its course. At the same time, the majority of 6–7 year old children have a visual-figurative type of thinking and, therefore, have difficulty operating with abstract definitions.

Where to start learning?

Before you start learning, your child should already be able to and know a lot:

  • freely count up to at least 60;
  • understand the basic time concepts: last year, tomorrow, last night, a year later, a month ago, etc .;
  • know and understand the sequence of seasons;
  • know the names of the days of the week and their order;
  • understand concepts such as minutes and seconds. It is best to do this in a playful way, for example, by answering the question: “What can be done in one second?”, And immediately answer, accompanying the answer with a certain action: blink, jump, etc.

If the child has difficulties in one of the listed areas, then it is better to postpone acquaintance with the clock until the general time concepts are mastered by him. To do this, talk with your child more often, plan for the near future, discuss what happened some time ago, more often pronounce the sequence of any events or actions (for example: first you came from a walk, then took off your shoes, then washed your hands and, finally, sat down to dinner) .

How to study time on a clock with arrows?

After the child understands the essence of the time sequence various events, the concept of past, present and future, etc., you can go directly to the clock.

To do this, you will need a watch of a fairly large diameter and with moving hands. You can use both toy mechanisms and real ones. The latter should be without glass and other elements that make it difficult to access the arrows. In any case, the dial should be monochromatic so as not to scatter the child's attention on patterns, pictures, etc. In addition, the arrows and numbers are much better visible on a simple one-color background.

If desired, the clock can also be drawn on cardboard, but without the hands. Pencils and pens can act as their role. The drawn clock should also not be overloaded with unnecessary details: only clear large numbers and second divisions.

You should start learning with an explanation of the simplest concepts. First of all tell your child about arrows: what they serve for, in what direction and at what speed they move.

With the minute hand set to 12, begin moving the hour hand around the dial, announcing the time each time it changes position. Then invite the child to set the hour hand himself and determine the time. It may not work the first time, so be prepared to be patient.

Once the hour hand is mastered, move on to the minute hand. Move it from 12 to 1, explaining to the child that 5 minutes have “passed”. Move it again and again name the time, but do not touch the hour hand, let it stand in one place.

Having dealt with the arrows separately, you can begin to study them joint movement. It is better to start with simple examples - 1:05, 3:20, 7:45, etc. Then you can move on to more complex combinations - 2:48, 6:17, 8:09). Do not forget the position of the hands when they are on the same line and look in the same direction - 1:05, 2:10, 3:30, etc.

At the last stage of training, you can start complicated tasks. Having set the arrows on any numbers, ask the child to show the time that will come through:

  • 3 hours;
  • 40 minutes;
  • 1 hour and 45 minutes, etc.

Similar to the examples above, you can ask the child to indicate the time that was a certain number of hours and minutes ago. Well, after that, you can begin to master such complex concepts as “at a quarter to”, “half to two”, “at twenty”, etc. The child has achieved significant results by learning to determine the time by the hands of the clock, which means that such terms can be mastered without difficulty .

How to improve skills?

Do not forget that any knowledge and skills are acquired much easier if you spend them in a playful way. Arrange a themed olympiad or quiz with your child. Prepare tasks in advance and invite the child to come up with them for you. When it's your turn to answer questions, periodically give incorrect answers so that the child has the opportunity to check and correct them. Such mental work will help to consolidate the knowledge he has gained, and you can make sure that your child has learned to tell the time correctly.

A developed sense of time helps children become more organized, disciplined, punctual, and complete tasks on time. The ability to tell time is an important skill, so it is necessary to help the child cope with this task.

Learning to navigate in time

Introduce the preschooler to time standards. A second can be represented as a handclap, a minute consists of 60 such handclaps. An hour is 60 minutes. In order for the child to better imagine how long it is - a minute or an hour, it is necessary to pay attention to how much time the child does this or that thing: dresses, draws, watches a cartoon, walks on the street.

Also an interesting way to compare units of time is the "Estimate the time" game. Ask your child to guess how many times you can do the same actions (squat, cycle down the track) in 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and in a minute.

Learning to tell the time on a clock with arrows

When your child has a basic understanding of time intervals, introduce him to clocks with hands. While digital clocks may seem simpler, analog clocks help you understand the time better thanks to the sequential movement of the hands. There is an opinion that it is enough for children under the age of 7 to determine the time with an accuracy of half an hour (this applies to analog watches), and only closer to 10 years do children understand the concept of “a quarter of an hour” and know how to determine the time with an accuracy of up to a minute. So don't expect too much from your kids. However, if your preschooler learns to tell time in 5-minute increments, that will be great.

5-6 years old is the right age to buy a watch for a child. Let it be a simple watch, the design of which he will choose himself. Show where the dial is, hour and minute hands. On some watches there is a third hand - the second, it is the thinnest and we can see how it moves. Demonstrate how the arrows move. This can be done on a children's toy watch, a real watch with a large dial, or on a circle drawn into 12 sectors using two pencils. Leaving the hour hand stationary, move the minute hand around.

First, teach your child to determine the time with an accuracy of half an hour. Explain that if the minute hand is raised up to the 12 mark, then it is exactly one o'clock (two, and so on). In one hour, the minute hand travels a full circle; if it has traveled half a circle, then half an hour has passed.

Then teach your child to count in 5 (5, 10, 15, ...), in order to determine the values ​​of the minute hand on the clock. By the wall clock, next to the clock values, you can stick the minutes written on stickers (1 - 5 minutes, 2 - 10 minutes, ...). Tell me how to correctly name the time indications. For example, in cases where the minute hand has not reached the half-hour mark or crossed the half-hour mark.

Exercise regularly. Encourage your child to look at the clock throughout the day. Let him determine for himself how long you will go outside, return home or watch TV. Ask: "What time is it?" - and the child will gladly come to your aid.

Learn to tell the time with an electronic clock.

On a clock with arrows, the child better imagines the period of time (morning, afternoon, evening), just a cursory glance at the clock is enough. He can remember that when 2 arrows form a vertical line, dad comes back from work. The child can accurately recognize the indications on the electronic watch, but at first it is difficult for him to navigate them. Match the values ​​of clocks with hands and electronic clocks. It may be interesting for a child to wake up with an electronic alarm clock or, under the supervision of an adult, set a timer on the oven or double boiler.

Teaching time is not an easy task, but it can be easily done together. .

The concept of time accompanies the child from birth. Subject to the regime of the day, the “internal clock” tells the baby when it is time to get up, have lunch or take water procedures. Closer to 4 years, the growing child has an interest in determining the time on the dial. But teaching a child to understand time using a mechanical watch can be difficult. Teaching time will require strength and clarification. How to tell a preschooler about the minute and hour hands, how to teach how to tell time by the clock - you will learn all this in our article.

Learning to tell the time by the clock is not an easy task, which parents will help the little explorer to cope with. On average, teaching children to understand time can begin at the age of 5-6. With the proper approach to the first grade, the preschooler will already be able to answer the question, which is now the hour.

How to understand that the child is ready to understand and navigate in time? To be able to easily and correctly “read” the current time of day, you must have the following skills:

  • possession of a score from 1 to 60;
  • the ability to visually distinguish numbers within 12;
  • writing numbers from 1 to 12;
  • understanding the count in 5 steps (to study minutes).

If all the above actions are within the power of your child, then be sure that you are just one step away from the concept of time. 2-3 lessons, and the child will be able to determine the values ​​of the dial.

Time: we form the basic concepts of the baby

In order for a child to be able to easily call the right hour without outside help, it is necessary from early childhood to acquaint him with numbers and the basics of the simplest account. Also, for a full understanding of what time is, the baby must know the seasons and what a day is.

Seasons

The calendar is where the first acquaintance of the child with time begins. Large numbers, bright letters will help to arouse the interest of the fidget. Tell the baby how the seasons change each other, complete the explanation with illustrations. Summer, autumn, winter, spring - there are only four seasons, and each of them begins at its own time. You can also circle the birthdays of loved ones, and the baby himself will look forward to each “special” day and count the time until them.

On a note! Be sure to show your child changes in nature every season to form emotional sensations. The Soviet cartoon “Twelve Months” will help to learn the information about the seasons well.

Times of Day

Studying the seasons, you can simultaneously get acquainted with the day, the change of day and night. Here, there will be no difficulty in learning, because you can clearly show how the position of the sun changes during the day. Reinforce the topic with questions about what time of day the child gets up, goes for a walk, or meets dad from work.

Advice! Already now it is worth paying attention to the running of the dial, designating each action with time (“we have afternoon tea at 11 o'clock in the afternoon”, “grandmother will come at 5 o'clock in the evening”, etc.).

Learning to navigate in time

When your child is familiar with the concepts of day, week, month and year, it's time to proceed directly to the study of time and the concepts of "hour", "minute" and "second".

To begin with, let your student get a feel for what time and time periods are. For most children, watches are nothing more than numbers. It is important to explain to the child what time periods are and what their length is using specific examples from life.

  • The second is the shortest unit of time. One quick clap is equal to one second. Try this exercise: put a mechanical watch in front of you, and clap along with your child in sync with the second hand. Getting in time with time, it will be easy for a preschooler to master the value of the second hand.
  • To study the minutes, let your child understand how much a five-minute or half an hour contains. The cartoon lasts 3 minutes - pretty fast. Dressing up took 10 minutes - state this time. Pay attention to the minute-by-minute duration of what the child is doing. You can keep track of time together with a timer.
  • Having learned what minutes are, proceed to study the hour. It is important to start with the fact that a day is 24 hours, of which we spend 8-10 hours in a dream, and the rest of the time we are awake. This is what watches are for, to know how much time is required for a certain activity.

To make learning such an important skill as determining the time on the clock a pleasure, you can use the Nikitin method for classes. This technique includes a relaxed study of time, with it you will find answers to the questions “what is a clock?” and “how do they tell the time?”

You will need a watch dial with a diameter of at least 20 cm. You can make it yourself using cardboard. We make the hour hand wide, but short, and the minute hand - long and thin. On the dial, we denote the hours in large numbers, and the minutes in smaller ones.

Important! When learning time, a child should know the numbers from 1 to 12.

  • At the first lesson, let the child look at the dial, call the numbers he knows. First, explain which of them represent the hour. Take your time, let the child look, twist the arrows, compare their size. Tell the kid that he is like a watchmaker, so he must handle time carefully.
  • Explain which of the arrows is moving slowly, which is faster. Ask questions on the last “topic”: what does the thick arrow show? Further, you can study that the hour hand on the unit means 1 hour, on the deuce - 2, etc.

    • At the next lesson, repeat what you have learned and ask - what time is it? Since the numbers are in order, it will not be difficult for the child to answer the question. Having consolidated knowledge by hours, you can move on to minutes.

Determine the time on the clock

The easiest way for a child who can count to 100 is to use an electronic clock to keep track of time. With their help, you can control the time and do not need to calculate minutes. If you are looking for an answer to the question of how to teach time quickly, then this is probably the easiest option. But an electronic device can take away the incentive to learn how to use an ordinary mechanical watch. At the learning stage, try not to give the child “indulgences” in the form of a dial on the display.

  • Get a children's clock made of wood or cardboard with the ability to move the hands on their own. The numbers should be written in hours and minutes, so it will be easier to associate the location of the hand and the amount of time.

    • We rarely use the second hand when determining time, so focus primarily on the hour and minute hands.

    Show which way the hands on the clock are moving. The meaning "clockwise" will often accompany the child. Explain that the arrows only move in one direction.

    The numbers from 1 to 12 are usually written on the clock, but it is important to immediately tell that the day includes as many as 24 hours. A day is when the small hour hand goes around the entire dial twice.

    What is an hour? This is when the hour hand is on any of the digits, and the minute hand is exactly 12. First, look at the hour, then at the minute, and in no case vice versa.

Move from theory to practice. Show that moving the minute hand by one means 5 minutes. They moved it again - already 10 minutes (5 + 5).

Note! If the child is familiar with the multiplication table, then it is easier to explain that two times five is ten. A series of multiplication by five is the “minute” dial. New to multiplication? You can just remember the tongue twister - 5,10,15,20, etc.

Time is money. Time is the essence of being. Time is of the essence. You grow up, you have more things to do - it's time to learn how to tell the time. This article is for those who want to know how to tell time by clock. Read on for some helpful tips and tricks.

Steps

Core Skills

    Find the right watch. On this clock, you will notice many numbers and three hands.

    • One arrow is very thin and moves very fast. It's called seconds. With every move she makes, a second passes.
    • The other hand is wider and longer, like the second hand, it is called the minute hand. Each time it moves one small space, a minute passes. Every 60 times she completes a full circle, an hour passes.
    • The last hand is also wide, but it is smaller than the minute hand. It's called the clock. Each time it passes one large division, an hour passes. Every 24 times it completes a full circle, a day passes.

  1. Know the relationship between seconds, minutes and hours. Seconds, minutes and hours are all measures of the same thing: time. They are not the same, but they measure the same thing.

    • Every 60 seconds counts as one minute. 60 seconds, or 1 minute, is the time it takes for the second hand to go from 12 all the way back to 12.
    • Every 60 minutes counts as one hour. 60 minutes, or 1 hour, is the time it takes the minute hand to go from 12 all the way back to 12.
    • Every 24 hours counts as one day. 24 hours, or a day, is the time it takes for the hour hand to go from 12 all the way back to 12 and then another round.

  2. Look at the numbers on the clock. You will notice that the clock has many numbers arranged in a circle. They are arranged in ascending order, that is, they increase as they move around the circle. The numbers increase from 1 to 12.

    Know that each hand on the clock moves in the same direction in a circle. We call this direction "clockwise". It goes in ascending order from 1 to 12. The clock hands always move in this direction when the clock is working properly.

    How to determine what time it is

    1. Look at the number the hour hand is pointing at (small wide hand). So you can determine what time it is. The hour hand always points to the larger numbers on the clock.

      Be aware that often the hour hand will be between two numbers. When it shows between two numbers, the current hour is the lower number.

      • If the hour hand is between 5 and 6, it means it's around 5 now, because 5 is the smaller number.

    2. Know that if the hour hand points exactly to the number, then that is how many hours it is now. For example, if the small wide hand points directly at 9, it is exactly 9 o'clock.

      When the hour hand is closer to the larger of the two numbers, the minute hand approaches the number 12. When the minute hand points to 12, the next hour begins.

      How to determine how many minutes

      1. Look at the number that the minute hand is pointing to (the long, thick hand). It shows how many minutes it is. Pay attention to small divisions between large numbers. They represent minutes. To determine how many minutes it is, you need to count each small division as one minute, starting with the number 12.

      2. Use multiples of five. When the minute hand points to a large number on the clock, use multiples of five to tell what minute it is.

        • For example, if the minute hand is pointing directly at 3, multiply 3 by 5 to get 15. "15" is that many minutes now.

      3. Determine how many minutes using multiples of five and the number of small divisions between large numbers. When the minute hand is pointing between the large numbers on the clock, find the nearest large number it has passed, multiply that number by 5, and add the number of remaining small divisions. Between each large number there are four small divisions.

        • For example, if the minute hand points directly between 2 and 3, select the lower number first. This is the number "2". Multiply 2 by 5, which gives us 10. Then count the number of divisions from 10 minutes to where the minute hand is now: we get two, that is, another 2 minutes.