Teaching children how to tell time is just one subject they will easily pick up through your effort to continuously talk to your child. Just as many other subjects parents must approach and inform children about, time is a concept that is both hard to understand and simple to address.

There are more ways to tell time than just one, with each age introduce a new way to learn how to tell time, starting out with a digital clock and ending with ways to tell time without a clock. These are fun concepts that you and your child can do together that can be measured with the sun and/or shadows.

4-5 Years
When your children are young and they have no concept of addition, counting or adding using a digital clock can start them off with learning the concept of time. “When this number is four and these two numbers are zero. That is when we will be going to the park. No matter what you are doing, where you are going, or what is going on during the day make sure to point to the clock throughout the day and let them know what time it is.

Talk to your child about time and how long things take, “this cake takes thirty minutes to cook, so when this number is four and these two numbers are two and five then the cake will be done. The same concept can be used for going to the doctors, driving to the zoo, or doing other activities.

Main points to address:

1. •Talk about time and how long certain things take.
   

2. •Use a digital clock.
   

Ages 5-9
When your children step into this age group it’s time to introduce a face clock. They should understand how to count though before you begin to teach them how to read a clock, or at least know how to count by 5’s.

Reading is an important part of a child’s activities, when you are teaching your child a certain subject or concept, always read books that center around that particular subject. After reading the book talk about time and what happened in the story that made the concept of time important. Why is it important to keep track of time? Why is it important to keep a schedule?

Main points to address:

1. •Teach them how to read a face clock.
   

2. •Read books about time and talk about the concept of time.
   

3. •Learn other ways to tell time without using a clock.
   

4. •Wen they ask you the time, ask them what time they think it is and help them to get to a conclusion while talking it through.