Homeschool World Forum

[Miyu]

My daughter is having difficulty learning how to tell time on an analog clock. We have one analog clock in the house...and several digital clocks...digital time is pretty much everywhere...

She learned about telling time in school...but didn't really get it. Now she is learning about it again as part of her math curriculum...and it just stumps her.

Does anyone have any ideas that would make it easier for her.

[momo3boys]

flashcards, buy her an analog watch/alarm clock, get an old clock that she can manipulate herself. Time is a hard subject, take it one step at a time and leave it and come back to it later if it is getting too frustrating for her.
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[Ramona]

Get more analog clocks. This could be for birthdays, Christmas presents, etc.

Within the family use terminology that "goes with" analog clocks. For instance, instead of saying, "It's 2:07" teach her to round it and pronounce it "five after two" even when reading the time from a digital clock.

Have her make a clock out of a paper plate, a brad (paper fastener), and two hands cut from a manila folder.

Practice with Roman numeral clocks, clocks with only the 3, 6, 9 and 12 printed on the face, only the 12, and no numbers at all.

Ask her to tell you what time it is every time you need to know for any reason instead of just looking yourself.

Have her discuss what time it is every time you start a new lesson or activity all day--even on the weekends.

Take it one baby step at a time and practice! practice! practice! each step.

I had a very hard time with learning to tell time in school. I've seen this mentioned as part of "dyscalculia."

One thing that stumped me was that many clocks had fat arrows for hour hands and thin arrows for minute hands, so I couldn't figure out why teachers kept telling me "the little hand is the hour hand and the big hand is the minute hand." That didn't even make sense, since hours are bigger than minutes.

So I always talk to my kids about what "big hand" means--that it's longer than the hour hand--and why the minute hand is longer--because it needs to point to a more specific part of the dial.

Ramona

[Lenethren]

For my daughter flashcards really worked. We took them everywhere....while waiting at the drs, during her siblings activities, car rides, etc I made sure she held the flashcards up for me too. I'd get one wrong on occasion and see if she'd pick up on it. She liked it when I got one incorrect because then she could help me by giving me hints so I'd get it right.
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