3 Steps to learn to read the clock made easy

Reading time: 3 minutes At the latest from primary school age, children start to deal with the time. In order to arrive on time in kindergarten or at school, it is necessary to know the time.

Learning to read the clock in 3 easy steps

This 3-step guide can help your child learn to read the clock.

Children discover time

Nobody can play as self-forgotten as little children. Time is not available to them, because all needs should be met as soon as possible. But when they go to kindergarten, the time plays an increasingly important role. The kindergarten always opens at the same time and the children should arrive on time in the morning.

Many children also want to know exactly when the parents pick them up again. During school time learn children to pay attention to punctuality. But the time also plays an increasingly important role for appointments in leisure time. And if you don’t want to miss your favorite TV show, you should also keep an eye on the time.

Important requirements

What seems so easy for adults is not so easy for children to learn. Therefore, do not start explaining the time to your child too early. It doesn’t matter if your child only starts to watch the clock when they are in primary school. In any case, it is important that your child numbers from one to twelve recognizes and understands. Also be careful not to overwhelm your child. If you notice that your child is losing concentration, postpone further explanations until the next day.

A learning watch is suitable as material. You can easily create these yourself with our instructions. In the children’s library you will also find cardboard picture books with a clock that you can borrow. It is best to get advice from the librarian. How to make a learning clock with your child.

Learn to read the clock in 3 steps

Your child can easily learn the times with these 3 steps:

Step 1: The full time

First concentrate on the full hours and explain the clock to your child. It consists of two hands and a dial with numbers from 1 to 12. The 12 is always at the top. The two pointers always move to the right. We call that clockwise.

The long hand shows the minutes. Once he has walked around in a circle, exactly one hour has passed. The small hand is the hour hand. It moves very slowly and moves to the next number in an hour. Set the learning clock to the full hours, i.e. the minute hand to the 12 and the small hand as well. The time now is 12 o’clock. Now your child can move the minute hand around the learning clock. The hour hand now moves to 1. It is 1 o’clock.

Set different times and practice with your child to read the full hours. The times from 1 p.m. to midnight should be disregarded in order not to unnecessarily confuse your child.

Step 2: Half an hour and a quarter of an hour

If your child can read the full hours, turn to the half hours and quarter hours. The principle behind and before can best be clarified if you draw and cut out a circular clock on a piece of paper. Divide this paper into 4 equal quarters.

Use the cut clock to explain to your child that an hour is divided into 4 equal time periods. That is the quarter of an hour. Two parts are half an hour and three parts become three quarters of an hour.

Set both hands of the learning clock to 12. Now move the minute hand from 12 to 3. A quarter of an hour has passed. If he wanders to 6, half an hour has passed. And on the 9 a quarter of an hour has passed.

If the minute hand moves to 6 on the first half of its round, you say "quarter past 12". If it is on the way from 6 to 12 it is called "quarter to 1". If the minute hand is at 6, it is half an hour before 1. This simply becomes half 1. Set the appropriate times and practice the appropriate times with your child.

Step 3: the minutes

Finally, explain the minutes to your child. If you have made the learning clock, now draw the minutes as lines. An hour consists of 60 minutes. It is always exactly 5 minutes between the individual numbers. This allows the time to be specified very precisely. If your child has understood the principle, you can explain a subtlety. If the minute hand is 25 minutes behind, it says "5 minutes to half". At 35 minutes it says "5 minutes after half".

day and night

If your child can read the clock without any problems, you can also explain the hours of a whole day. A day consists of 24 hours. At 1 a.m. the time begins to count. At 12 noon the hour hand circled the watch once. He now starts the second round and now the times from 1 p.m. to midnight count Hit Your child plan to write down or paint whatever it is doing at every full time. So it can better memorize the day and night routine.

Digital watches

Most alarm clocks or wristwatches are digital watches, which means that they have no hands. The time is shown by numbers. The two points in the middle are important. The numbers in front stand for the hour, those behind it indicate the minutes.

Photo credit: Sergey Novikov / stock.adobe.com

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Christina Cherry
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