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As adults, there are many skills we take for granted, but the truth is, we had to learn these skills, through hard work and perseverance. The quintessential example of this, of course, is telling time on an analog clock! As adults, we seldom think of the mental somersaults required to tell time on a traditional clock, but that changes when you have children. Read below to learn how to teach your child to read a clock, and help them get a jump start on their own education and independence.

Is Your Child Old Enough to Tell Time?

As a child's brain develops, their neural connections become better equipped to comprehend concepts, that once were too advanced for them. For example, the idea of object permanence (and the end of fascination with peek-a-boo!) or understanding the reality of dangers and consequences are intellectual growths we acquire with age. The same holds true for telling time.

So, how old should your children be when you teach them about time?

There are a few key ages where you should teach your child about time -- but remember this is an incremental process:

Age 5-6:
Children should be able to read the hour and half hour markers on an analog clock, and draw the corresponding times as well.

Age 6-7:
Children should know the number of minutes in an hour and the number of hours in a day.Children should be able to tell / draw time in five minute increments,
Children should be able to comprehend quarter to / quarter past concepts

Ages 7-8:
Children should be able to read an analog clock, using 12 hour clocks, 24 hour clocks, and Roman Numerals (I-XII).
Children should be able to compare time (by hours, minutes, and even seconds).
Children should be comfortable using time-specific vocabulary (o'clock, a.m./p.m., morning, afternoon, noon and midnight).

Teaching Your Child to Tell Time

Before a child can tell time, they need to understand the basics of what goes into telling time. Follow the below processes to ensure your child has the foundational knowledge to read a clock:

1. Practice Counting to 60: Before they can run, they have to walk. Similarly, before they can tell time, they have to know all their numbers up until 60, comfortably. Help them learn by having them read the numbers from a chart, write them, and recite them from memory.

2. Practice Counting by Fives: Once your child has learned to count to 60, teach them to count to 60 by fives. Your child will have mastered this when they can recite and write from 0-60, from memory.
Check YouTube for some catchy tunes to ease the process.

Introduce Your Child to the Concept of Time: Time, is actually quite a radical process (one that took humans a few thousand years to understand and record).
Start by introducing your child to the concepts of morning, noon, evening, and night time.
Then, ask your child when certain routine activities happen. (i.e. "When do we eat breakfast?" or "What do we do in the morning?").
Once your child can understand these divisions of the day, they're on track to understanding time!

Make a Model Clock Together: Pick up a paper plate, and enthusiastically tell your child "Today we're making our own clocks!" Keep an analog clock next to you, to use for reference. There are many websites available with free lesson plans on how to do this at home.
Be sure to focus on the important markers (12, 3, 6, 9), as well as the Hour Hand and Minute Hand during construction.
Afterwards, try a few simple examples of setting and telling times. To make it fun for your child, take turns with setting and answering (don't be afraid to get a few wrong to show them that it's okay to make mistakes)

Connect Time to Their Daily Routine: As your child continues to learn about time, keep connecting time with their daily routines -- but now go more advanced. For example, ask them what time school ends. Then, ask them to show you the corresponding time on the model clock.
Try doing this a few times every day (with different examples).

Start With the Hour Hand: As the easier of the two hands to grasp, start teaching your child how to use the hour hand of the clock so they can relate each number to an hour of the day.
Model how to read the hour hand a few times ("I see the hour hand is pointing to _, so I know it is _ o'clock!")
Then, as they start to pick it up, ask them to show you certain times on the clock.

Practice With the Minute Hand: The minute hand is more difficult for children to understand. Explain to your kids that since there are 60 minutes in an hour, 1 means 5, and 9 means 45. This can be extremely frustrating for most kids -- who like to think of math as black and white, so please ease them in to this and be patient.
Model how to read the minute hand ("I see the minute hand is pointing to x, so I know it is _:x*5 o'clock!")
If your child is really struggling, just draw the number of minutes around the clock and have them use that as a reference.
Remember, telling time is quite a difficult process and it will take your child some time.

As your child slowly builds confidence with the time-telling process, encourage them and continue to practice with them regularly. If they make mistakes, simply model the correct way to do it and try again.
Remember, all good things do take some time :)

Sources

"Activity: Make A Clock!" [Web]. Retrieved from https://www.education.com/activity/article/clock_first/

Busythings Ltd (2015). "Teaching Children How to Tell the Time: Hints and Tips." [Web]. Retrieved from https://www.busythings.co.uk/blog/teaching-children-how-to-tell-the-time-hints-and-tips/

Palomino, C (2019). "How to Teach Kids to Tell Time." [Web]. Retrieved from https://www.wikihow.com/Teach-Kids-to-Tell-Time

Wikipedia (2020). "History of Timekeeping Devices." [Web]. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_timekeeping_devices#cite_note-bruton-6

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As adults, there are many skills we take for granted, but the truth is, we had to learn these skills, through hard work and perseverance. The quintessential example of this, of course, is telling time on an analog clock!

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Peter and Maria 3, who don't yet understand the concept of numerals, are told that "When the big hand is on this line, it will be story time."Sam, 7-years-old, is putting a half-eaten sandwich in his lunch bag and asks, "I am done with my lunch, may I go out and play?" The school has a clock on the wall showing the start of lunchtime and beginning of playtime on its face. It would appear that the school designated 30 minutes for lunch before peers can play.
We cannot see it, get rid of it, contain it, or manipulate it. Time - present in our children's lives long before they begin reading letters or numerals, helps challenge all of us to become more organized and prioritize.

One of the questions I am often asked is, "Why do you teach children about analog clocks?" As our societies become more technologically advanced and implement digital clocks, we become conditioned towards mental linearity, which lacks scope and depth. Education Writer for the Washington Post, Valerie Strauss, addressed this topic last month in her article, British schools are replacing analog clocks with digital ones to help clueless students. So, the question remains, why should we continue teaching students to read analog clocks in a digital world? Here is a quick list in support of keeping analog clocks in schools:

Analog Clock Concepts Help Children Understand Time

Hearing the following phrases, "We are eating breakfast in the morning," "Going to bed at night," "It's time to go to softball practice," or, "There is no more time for one more game," gives early understanding of the time present in our lives. After a few months students turn into observant clock watchers.

Digital clocks do not capture this passage of time as well as analog clocks do. Watching the numbers change on the face of the digital clock does not give us the sense or passage of time, when 60 minutes turn to 1 hour. The visual experience of looking at an analog clock and processing the concept of coordinated movement of big and little hands are not shown on a digital clock.

Telling Time on an Analog Clock Develops Skills We Use Later

Specific hand positions on an analog clock equate to a particular time of day. Children learn to match numbers and hours to various times in the day, helping to identify what elapsed time is. This opens the door for several other skills as well as visualization.

The numbers on the face of analog clocks represent two different numbers simultaneously (for example, the number 12 represents itself and represents 60 minutes) - imaginative and roleplaying elements can be applied here to make learning fun: each number have a secret identify: the number 4 is 20, the number 7 is 35, and that identity is only revealed when the big hand is on the number - a game children will later remember when learning algebra. Each algebraic variable is a double agent in an "overcoat," the real identity comes out when you solve the equation. Creating a double layer paper plate clock and the two hands and plates put together with a paper fastener are creative projects we have been to show this concept.

Analog clocks also open the door to learning quarters, halves, days, weeks, etc. Converting the concept of a quarter, to a half hour, to 30 minutes is mental exercise that digital numbers may not provide to young learners.

As stated by The Guardian, "Reading an analog clock is a cognitive workout, requiring attribution of different values to the same 12 symbols, interpreted on three parallel planes - seconds, minutes, hours. Only with practice does this awesome mental feat come to feel easy."

Analog Clocks Can Help Us Think Musically

The ticking of an analog clock not only represents the passage of time, but also sets the speed for the passage of music, which is referred to as the tempo. Students who understand the tempo (or beats per minute), can then learn complex rhythm. Music combined with movement leads to dancing, encouraging the synchronization of moves with the tempos as they change from song to song.

Time is Related to Earth's Position in Space

The clockwise -counter clockwise movement brings up the question, "Why do clocks move left to right, the clockwise direction?" The explanation comes from the motion of the Earth relative to the Sun. Before mechanical clocks, it was observed that the Sun was highest in the sky at noon. Mechanical clocks used on the Northern Hemisphere were designed to follow the Sun's motion from left to right, the clockwise direction. All simple machines manuals reference this "clockwise rotation," and the motion is also used in subjects that include trigonometry and electricity.

While digital technology is practical and present, analog clocks provide us with a lot more than just what time it is. By continuing to educate children on how to read these clocks, they will develop valuable life skills as well as better understand our place in the universe.

Eva Szillery is a mathematician, received her Ph.D. in Mathematics at the Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary, she taught college courses in mathematics for engineering students. In 1998, Szillery began working with Professor Seymour Papert, a 40-year MIT Professor and Special Adviser for the Governor's Maine Technology Initiative. Szillery was hired to design the problem-solving component of the Maine Technology Initiative and with this "develop a generation of thinkers through problem-solving." In 2002, stemming from a suggestion made by Papert, she founded the MMSETS Program, a correspondence problem-solving program, and various outreach enrichment programs which include: modular origami, teacher in-service programs, and even programs for very young children and their parents. The program has been running successfully since 2002.

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The New "Cursive Debate," Should Children Still Learn to Read Analog Clocks?

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Peter and Maria 3, who don't yet understand the concept of numerals, are told that "When the big hand is on this line, it will be story time." Sam, 7-years-old, is putting a half-eaten sandwich in his lunch bag and asks, "I am done with my lunch, may I go out and play?"

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Knowing how to tell time is an important skill. There is a lot of debate over whether children need to learn analog time, especially since mobile phones have taken the place of analog watches for many people. While there may be few instances in which children have to rely on being able to read an analog clock, analog clocks help children understand the passage of time because they have hands that are consistently moving. Analog clocks also show time in multiples of five, which is not as transparent with digital clocks. There are a number of fun games to help children learn how to read both analog and digital time. One of my favorites is Eeboo's Time Telling Game (www.eeboo.com). ThinkFun also has a time-telling version of Zingo that helps children learn to read the hour and minute hands on an analog clock and then make the transition to reading digital time (www.thinkfun.com).

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Is it really important for my child to learn analog time?

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Knowing how to tell time is an important skill. There is a lot of debate over whether children need to learn analog time, especially since mobile phones have taken the place of analog watches for many people.

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Just like grown-ups, kids love digital tech. They can probably read time on a tablet or oven. But you should know that if they stay focused on digital interfaces, they miss out on tons of crucial benefits that come along with learning to tell time using an analog watch.

Every child's first watch should be an analog, with its universal faceplate design. Analog watches feature standardized hour markers with the 12-hour mark at the top center and customary three-hand movement.

Analog Watches Are Best for Teaching Kids to Tell Time

Teachers agree that there are long-term benefits to introducing children to analog watches early on. Kids learn to tell time while they develop cognitive skills in huge ways. Kids' first analog watches should feature numeric digits to keep things simple and familiar. Eventually, children will orient to the traditional analog design. They begin to intuit hour marks with absent numerals or abstract, stand-in shapes. This recognition builds complex thinking skills.

The customary three-hand system allows interaction. Kids learn visually as they observe the hands' ever-changing positions. Kinetic learners, those kids who gain knowledge through movement, find the second hand's progression an irresistible delight. Analog watches also enable complex interactive learning that is great for a child's brain.

Analog watches help kids learn how to tell time because they get practice following and reading the movement of the three hands, and analog watches offer kids many other benefits as well.

Three More Advantages of Analog Watches for Kids

Analog Watches Develop Math Proficiency

In addition to helping with early counting, analog design provides a visual math problem each time a child glances at it. Kids must add and subtract minutes as they figure out the time.

Kids Get Used to Fractions Using Analog Time

Traditional analog face design provides visual representations of fractions due to the way it divides an hour into pieces. Kids can see the fraction one-half or one-quarter as they see, hear or understand "half past" or "a quarter 'til."

Wearing a Watch Creates Time Management Skills

An analog watch face helps kids understand the progression of their day in hours and minutes. This knowledge empowers them to organize the time they have. A quick glance lets them know they have about 23 minutes of playtime left before mom or dad gets home or bedtime rituals start.

Armitron Offers Perfect Starter Watches for Children

If you haven't already, it's time to gift an analog watch to a child in your life. Armitron provides classic styles that are durable enough for children at prices you'll love.

Kids will adore the bright color and comfy fit of Armitron's Red Analog Watch with Digital Functions and Resin Strap. This ana-digi combo works great for kids since it features actual minute indicators on the hour marks, such as 05, 10 and so on. This watch also includes the date and a weekday window kids will be able to use.

You'll find another gift option for a watch that will last as the child grows in Armitron's Swarovski Crystal Analog Watch with Rose Gold Leather Strap. This makes the perfect starter watch for a fashion-forward child as she moves into sweet sixteen and beyond. The simple face design features numeric digits, classic pink hues and touches of sparkle at a remarkably affordable price.

Every child deserves the perfect gift of an analog watch - and the earlier you introduce them to this beneficial technology, the better. Analog watches introduce kids to a necessary skill set that provides a lifetime of enrichment.
For more information about Armitron, subscribe to our newsletter! Be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest and check us out on Have2HaveIt for the latest styles, tips and trends. Featured in this article (click image for more details):

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Why Your Child Should Learn to Read Time with an Analog Watch

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Just like grown-ups, kids love digital tech. They can probably read time on a tablet or oven. But you should know that if they stay focused on digital interfaces, they miss out on tons of crucial benefits that come along with learning to tell time using an analog watch.

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Anyone paying attention to changes in schools over the years will notice how evolving technology has altered the ways students learn. For example, iPads have replaced textbooks, digital whiteboards have replaced chalkboards, even the classroom itself has been replaced to a degree, with students able to take classes remotely over the internet. The question begs to be asked. Are analog clocks the next to go?

A Vanishing Skill?

Across the Atlantic, some British schools have taken note of that development, replacing analog clocks with the digital variety, according to the Washington Post, which notes that the same time-telling handicap applies to many American students, too. That's what an Oklahoma City survey concluded, finding that just one in five students ages 6-12 could read an analog clock.

An Unnecessary Stressor?

A Foundational Skill?

Those who want to hold on to the analog tradition say that learning to read the format is part of a basic level of education. In support of that argument, the Common Core curriculum that guides what is taught in American schools still includes analog time-telling as a standard lesson.

Use it or Lose it?

The argument for learning to read analog clocks might also be compared to the value of knowing long division or memorizing phone numbers. After all, the old saying persists today: "Use it or lose it."

Physical exercise could be seen as another valid analogy. Daily life doesn't require that we expend as much physical energy as it used to, but no one's arguing against the value of a good sweat once in a while. Perhaps, then, we need to intentionally engage in certain mental exercises - making computations that we don't actually need to do - for overall cognitive health.

Of course, at American Time, we value the skill of reading analog clocks and believe it will continue to be a necessary and important skill to know in the future. However, we do understand that digital clocks are simply better suited for some purposes. We're interested to see which direction this argument leads us here in the U.S.

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Is Teaching Students to Read Analog Clocks Still Relevant in Schools?

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Anyone paying attention to changes in schools over the years will notice how evolving technology has altered the ways students learn. For example, iPads have replaced textbooks, digital whiteboards have replaced chalkboards, even the classroom itself has been replaced to a degree, with students able to take classes remotely over the internet.

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Teaching Kids to Tell Time Using An Analog Clock

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- There is a debate about whether schools should continue to teach kids how to tell time.

In the United Kingdom, schools are now getting rid of analog clocks because kids just don't know how to read them. Some are now pushing for U.S. schools to follow suit.

RELATED: NC Lawmakers Launch Cursive Writing Investigation

"Everything is so digital today; it's not necessarily a good thing," said Bob Piotrowski, a clockmaker and horologist at Time After Time in Indian Land. "Why are we losing our contact to our past? Why should we do that when we should preserve that?"

However, some say kids just can't read good ol' clocks anymore. NBC Charlotte set out to discover if that's really true. We quizzed several kids on their analog clock skills. It wasn't a shining success.

The truth is the analog clock might be gathering dust in 2018. Yet there are still people like Bob who aren't giving up just yet.

"I don't want this to die," he said. "Time's not up. It's not over, it's not over 'til the bell strikes."
► Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the WFMY News 2 App now

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Should Schools Continue To Teach Kids How To Tell Time?

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- There is a debate about whether schools should continue to teach kids how to tell time. In the United Kingdom, schools are now getting rid of analog clocks because kids just don't know how to read them. Some are now pushing for U.S. schools to follow suit.