Me to my six year old: It’s 6 o’clock, time to start getting ready for bed
Him to me: No mum, it’s two minutes to six. I have two minutes!
You may be thinking, cheeky child but I’m thinking, he can tell time to the minute now? And on and on it goes with his detailed time telling. It makes me smile because at the start of the summer (at the end of Year 1) he couldn’t confidently tell me the time at o’clock or half past. Never have I sat down with him to teach him the time, nor has one worksheet been used to formalise his learning of time. So how did he learn?
I decided to share this to explain how I help my kids and other kids I have the privilege of teaching, learn.
I help them learn! And that’s my focus. I don’t focus on teaching, I focus on helping them learn. They do the learning, I help them achieve what’s already in them, the ability and the desire to learn!
IT STARTS WITH CREATING THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT:
I have a time teaching clock on the wall in his room (most of us have that) I excitedly hang it up and ask him to help me. Then I put a time telling poster under the clock. He is less interested in it so I don’t draw attention to it. I have a time telling place mat too and a few toy clocks which are mostly ignored, but hey they are there!!!
GENERATE AN INTEREST:
Usually the kids are interested (if it looks like fun) so this should be easy. The problem is we take their interest and quite often KILL IT with our seriousness! They lose interest and then it’s hard to get them back. My 3 year old is interested in the measuring tape so I don’t sit him down and teach him how to read it do I? And I’m sure you don’t either, you probably just let them have fun measuring everything and jotting down whatever they feel like. The problem is once we think they should know this by now, we stop the fun and bring out the worksheets!!!
START SMALL AND LET THE CHILD DICTATE THE PACE:
So we start with o’clock and half past. Once he’s got that (how I got him to learn that is worth explaining too but not in this post) I stay there. Whenever the time is on the hour or half past the hour I make some seemingly unintentional conversation about the time that causes him to say casually, it is 6 o’clock or it is half past six. I don’t ask directly (stress tension can cause them to freeze). You know what happens when you ask your child to perform in front of friends/family! Instead, it should be a casual conversation where telling the time (in his mind) is not the focus. Soon he starts saying, mummy it’s almost half past or it has gone past half past. This gives me the confidence that he has got that bit and is ready to move on!
The key is starting small and letting them own that new knowledge and feel confident with it. If we move too quickly (before the knowledge is set), it all comes crumbling down. The problem is once we think they should know this by now, we rush, we push, we put them on the spot, “c’mon now, we’ve done this before!!!” We bring out more worksheets!
Now when your child sees a clock they run to the other side of the room 😅
Usually, as CONFIDENCE GROWS, their ENJOYMENT INCREASES, they want to learn more and the cycle continues. At this point I start the process again but upping the ante. I bring in fun games to help tell the time. I set timed challenges, I continue to let them dictate the pace but I make sure my response allows them deepen their knowledge.
SO WHEN DO I BRING OUT THE WORKSHEETS?:
Worksheets and workbooks are great for practise and reinforcement . They are not (in my opinion) the way to begin the learning process. I just had a fun game of time-telling with my six and three year old where he deepened his understanding, was challenged but was also rolling on the floor (literally) laughing. He also was helping his younger brother answer the questions. It was a lot of fun and a lot of learning was done! At some point in his workbook (of which I have many, don’t you worry), he will come across time and should feel confident enough to answer the questions.
AH! WHAT IF HE GETS AN ANSWER WRONG YOU SAY?:
I’m sure that because there has been no stress and anxiety in the process of learning, he will have no issue coming to me to ask how to tackle the problem in the beloved worksheet 😝. I’m sure of this because this is not the first time I have used this process with him and other kids and so they are not afraid of making mistakes….
Making mistakes and ‘failure’, the next big issues I’d like to address!
Learning is fun! Let's keep it that way 
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