How to Teach your Child to Tell time to the Quarter Hour

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By cygnetbrown
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There are two things I love teaching children. The first one is teaching them to read and the second is teaching them to tell time. These two skills are the basis of which everything else we learn is based on. We use these skills from the day we learn them for the rest of our lives. You don't have to be a professional teacher to teach your child to read or to tell time. All you need to do to teach them is to break down the steps and teach them a little at a time. Teaching a child to tell time to the quarter hour doesn't have to wait until the child is six or seven years old either. I've known four year old children that are able to pick up this concept easily.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

paper plates
round stickers you can write on
a sharpie marker
poster board scraps
brass brads.

Step 1

Teach your child to count objects through play and begin this as soon as they are born. Have a poster over the child's changing table and every time you change the child's diaper, count the objects in the poster. Count cheerios at meal time, count all the time and make sure that it's play not only for your child but for you too. Remember, learning time is play time.
Step 2

Next, teach them what each number looks like. Write the numbers out on 3x5 cards. Beginning with one, teach them what one looks like. Make sure that they associate one with the number of objects. Continue until the child knows what all the numbers look like up to the number 12.
Step 3

My experience with children and numbers has been that their counting ability for some reason plateaus for a while when they turn four. For some reason they get confused above the number 13. I've stopped trying to push it and have instead started teaching the chock at this time. The first thing I teach them is where the numbers are on the clock and since they've learned what the numbers look like. To do this I take a paper plate and mark tick marks where each of the numbers go. And make stickers with the numbers on them for the children to place on the paper plate clock. Four year olds don't have the small motor skills yet required to write numbers so this method works great for accomplishing this task.
Step 4

Once they know where the numbers go on the clock, your child is ready to begin learning the o' clocks. Using your paper plate clocks. (Save the ones you put the stickers on) Make Hands for your clock. Put a hole in the center of your clock and hands and place attach them to your clock using a brass brad. Place the long hand toward the twelve and the short hand toward a number one and tell them that is one o'clock. Now take the short hand and place it on the two and ask them what time is it? If they haven't figured out the concept, tell them. Then move the short hand to the three and so on until they understand the concept. It won't take long.
Step 5

While they are solidifying their understanding of o'clock, begin teaching them about halves using every day objects. During the day, teach them about half an apple, half a cookie, half a pie etc. Show them with paper that when you cut the paper in half, you have two pieces. Now teach the concept of half on the clock. That the long hand down on the six is half way to the next hour.
Step 6

Once they are comfortable with the half, teach them the quarter concept.. Have them learn that 1/4th is a quarter. Teach them again with every day objects. An apple cut in four pieces, one piece is a quarter and so on. Use another paper plate and show them that by cutting the paper plate in four even pieces you have four quarters. Now using the clock, show your child the quarter after. Once they understand that concept, make sure that they continue to understand the other concepts that you've taught them on the clock. Practice using the real clock. You'll be surprised at how fast they understand.
Step 7

Once the child understands the rest of it thoroughly, then begin teaching the quarter till. This is more difficult a concept to understand and may take a little more work but soon your child will understand this too. It just might take a little longer.