Telling the Time

Mum, can we have breakfast now? No dear it is half past 5 in the morning.

Mum, is it not time for tea yet? No dear it is only 2pm and we only had lunch an hour ago.

Mum, when is Daddy coming back from work? At half past 4. But when is that?

Sometimes I feel like I am Mr Wolf and all I hear is What time is it Mr Wolf? Except very rarely do I get to say it's dinner time and I think it is frowned upon if I gobble the children up. I have tried on a few occasions to teach Mr Social to tell the time but with little success. We got him an easy to read watch that is red on one side and blue on the other with numbers for the hours and separate numbers for minutes.

Although he loves it and thinks he looks real smart wearing it, he doesn't really want to tell the time for himself.

So then I tried printing out a large clock with hands that can be moved so that he could fiddle about with it and learn through play. 

Again it sparked his interest for a while. I even laminated it so I could write minute numbers around the edge and mark the sides clearly with past and to. Once again interest lagged and as I pulled out my clock yesterday to recap time with Mr Social I was met with a blank face as he struggled to grasp the concept of quarter past and quarter to and getting muddled with hour and minute hands.

Back to the drawing board I went on search of something different to help us out and renew his interest in telling the time. I was on the lookout for something quite specific and was resigned to having to create it myself when I remembered a resource website that offered free printables called twinkl. Twinkl is a great resource and I have used their free printables on a number of occasions now. They also offer a subscription based membership and lots more resources become available to you. On this occasion I was looking for a game. I have always had great success with game based activities and I found a lovely time bingo game which I printed and laminated and which we have gone on to play for most of the morning. 

By the end of the morning Mr Social was confidently picking out quarter past and quarter to once again. I will of course revisit this game frequently at the moment to reinforce the lessons. Once again I find myself being thankful for the plentiful free resources that are now available over the internet and pleased to be able to share them with you.