How to Teach Children to Tell Time?

Telling time can be made one of the interesting and fun activities for children. Here is how you can teach your children to tell time.As a parent, it is your duty to make sure that your child learns the little lessons that form the essence of life. Because what they learn will determine the kind of person they become as an adult. It is up to you to ensure proper mental and cognitive development of your child.For example, being able to tell the time is not something that is inborn. You have to teach them about the minutes and hours, and as any parent will tell you - it can be quite a chore. But it will be a watermark, which will eventually shape the course of their life. In this articleNumbers Make All the Difference!Make Learning a Fun Experience!Do Not Use Figurative Expressions, Go Simple!Storybooks or Flashcards Can Help!Why is it Important to Teach Your Child How to Tell the Time?Numbers Make All the Difference!Before teaching your children to tell the time, teach them the numbers first. They must know all the numbers till 60. But Rome was not built in a day; you cannot expect a 3 year old child to know all these numbers by heart in a short span of time. You have to be patient, and you have to accept the fact that you will have to go over the numbers every day to implant it in their memory. While this may seem like a piece of cake to you, it is extremely hard for your child.Make Learning a Fun Experience!Who said learning has to be didactic or monotonous? After all, you are not their teacher. You are their parent! Infants would not be attracted to numbers, but you have to devise ways to attract them. Give them large, colourful toy clocks to play with. Sit with them down and explain how the numbers are divided in the clock.Tell them that the big hand is the minute hand, and that each small division in the clock represents a minute. Then draw their attention to the short hand. It represents the hours. Ask them frequently where is the short hand and where is the big hand and then help them interpret what they see and tell time. Do Not Use Figurative Expressions, Go Simple!Remember, your child is taking into account everything you say or do. Be careful while using statements like "just a second" or "just a minute" in front of them. These may confuse your children, because they do not know these are merely figures of speech. They are likely to take everything literally. Instead, tell your child about the different activities associated with a particular time. Time blocks like going to bed at night or eating lunch at noon, will help them understand what happens when. This will help them understand how "time" really works!Storybooks or Flashcards Can Help!You can also use flash cards which have little time telling tricks on them. Flash cards are quick ways of learning something and will grab you childs attention, because let us face it, the biggest problem in teaching children something is their short attention span. You can also resort to storybooks which have tales related to time to help them understand.But do not try to teach them everything in one day, give their brain time to understand these complicated concepts. There is no point in scolding them, it will only discourage them. Love and patience is the key to a harmonious relationship between parent and child.Why is it Important to Teach Your Child How to Tell the Time?Do you want your children to be confused about time for the rest of their life? Punctuality is something that they will be judged on in every sphere of their life, how are they supposed to be in time for school or college if they cannot tell 5 AM from 7 AM?At the age of two and three, your childs brain is still developing. The human brain is like any other part of the body, it needs to be active constantly to stay in shape. Teaching your children to tell the time can be a rewarding experience for you as well, since you will be working towards the enhancement of their cognitive abilities.At what age should children be able to tell time? What are the simple ways to teach children to tell time? Why is it important to teach children to tell time? Discuss here.