Start by explaining the parts of the clock, the hour hand, the minute hand and if there is one a second hand on the clock being used. One of the challenges children face is identifying the hands. Helping your child create a strategy for identifying the hour, minute, and the will give them the tools to start this task. It is helpful to use a demonstration clock or to make a toy clock for the child to manipulate as you are working on these lessons. Clocks that mark the minutes even have more value as the child can literally count the minutes between each section as you move forward to more challenging lessons.
Do not race to teach clock skills. Progress at the rate your child is demonstrating mastery of the concepts. For some children the light will click on, for others it may take working on a step for a while, attempting another approach, or just maturity to kick in. Do not get frustrated and do not rush.
Teach the hours of the clock next. Keep the minute hand of the clock on twelve. Then help your child to manipulate the hour hand to each of the twelve hours. I suggest starting with one and moving to twelve. Once your child can demonstrate how this works you can mix it up and ask the child to show an hour on the clock. At this time you may want to use some of the free worksheets or the on-line games listed below to practice. I suggest you let your child master this before moving on to minutes.
Use the skill your child has, skip counting to explain how the minute hand works. The clock works the same way the child skip counts. The one is the first 5 the child skipped to, the 2 the 10 the child skipped to and so forth. At this point just work on having your child count the minutes. Do not be worried about the hour combined with the minutes. The more skills you attempt at once, the more confused kids get.
This is a great time to make a paper clock with your child. A paper plate, card stock for the hands, and a metal fastener that will allow the hands to move are the basics for the project. For accuracy sake you may want to lay out where the numbers should go on the paper plate for the child and have them copy them. That will make your clock a bit more accurate. I suggest card stock for the hands as it is stronger than regular paper. Laminating or using contact paper on the hands will make them even more durable.
Let the child practice this skill without pressing forward until the light comes on. Giving a child an inexpensive watch can help them practice and be a motivator to learn. Using an inexpensive analog alarm clock also can make the exercise fun. I have donated more than one to the cause of a young relative learning. They are remarkably sturdy for the task and not too expensive to donate to the cause.
The links below provide opportunities to practice all these skills. When you can place the minute hand on any number and your child can tell you how many minutes that indicates, you are ready to move forward to actually reading the clock. This is a great time to do a quick check to make sure your child still remembers how to tell the difference between the hour and minute hands. You have been using them in isolation, a review never hurts.
This is the point at which you explain how the hour and minutes are read together. Do not attempt to explain halves and quarters until this skill has been mastered. Giving too much information at once is what drove many adults to digital watches and clocks. Explain that the hour is read first and then the minutes. Practice reading the clock before attempting to record the time. There are free practice exercises below. When the child has mastered reading, then move on to writing.
Find plenty of opportunities to get your child to practice. Having them tell you what time it is, getting them to check the clock for grandma, or sending them to check the clock in the kitchen are all great opportunities. Have them use that watch you bought. Have it be useful practice not just busy work. There are games that you can play and some worksheets but real world experience can not be beaten.
There are still other clock lessons that will need to be visited at later dates. These include the quarter and half hours and clocks with roman numerals. None of these skills are hard but just approach them with the same patience and calmness you took with the original lessons.
Cake and pizza are a wonderful opportunities to introduce any lesson on fractions. Using food can be a popular way to introduce basic fractions and advance your clock lessons at the same time. Children actually do understand dividing something into even pieces. Equal is a concept that is often an obsession with some kids. For the most part fractions are about giving kids the language to describe concepts they have had previous experience manipulating. Children may not know the word quarter, but they do understand dividing something to share between four people. Starting with that concept you can introduce the words half and quarter. These concepts can then be brought back to your paper clock.
Compare the cake or pizza to the clock. Show the children that the clock can also be divided into halves and quarters. Then you can demonstrate to children how to use those terms when telling time. Often people rush to teach this skill. I would really suggest waiting until the child is comfortably telling time using the hours and minutes. After teaching the half past and quarters people will also teach the minutes before the hour. These are advanced skills. Children do need to know them but ensure mastery as you move from one to the next. The minutes before is often addressed by using the hands of the clock and asking the child to identify how many minutes remain until the hour. Then the adult explains the correct way to say it to the child.
While there are not nearly as many clocks with Roman Numerals produced as there used to be, children still do encounter them. Roman Numerals are not often taught as an early childhood skill. However, if a clock in your house or a family member's house has one a child may be curious why it is different. I often suggest approaching Roman Numerals as a code with children. Many kids like codes and code breaking. Write the numbers they are familiar with on a page going down the paper 1-12. Then next to each number write the corresponding Roman Numeral. Have the children practice making the Roman Numerals. I've included a link that can help teach Roman Numeral clocks
