All About Time

What time is it?  It's time to spring forward for Daylight Saving Time, which makes it the perfect time for some lessons all about time.  For many children, telling time is a milestone on their way to becoming more independent.  There are steps you can take to help even children too young to really tell time get a little closer to that milestone.  One step is to use a clock that chimes on the hour.  Chances are your child will notice a pattern on his own.  This will give you the opportunity to talk about time and introduce the concept that time can be measured.  Another step, which I used regularly with my sons when they were little, is to post a practice clock beside our wall clock.  Set the time on the practice clock to whatever time something important would happen (such as bedtime, time for a friend to come over, etc.).  Instead of asking if it's time yet, they can simply compare the two clocks to see if they match.  Even though they can't actually tell time yet, it gives them a sense of independence (and minimizes their asking, "Is it time yet?"  If you don't have a practice clock, here is a free one I posted last fall.

For children old enough to start learning to tell time, I have found a nice collection of lesson plans.  The general idea is to start with telling time to the hour.  Then practice telling time to the half-hour, quarter-hour, five minutes, and finally to the minute.  Here are links to some ready-made lesson plans from Teachers.net, Teach-nology, and Lesson Corner.

Children are inquisitive creatures, so you are bound to get questions about time.  I can't tell you how many times over the years my children have come up with questions that I just didn't know how to answer.  Keeping that in mind, I tried to anticipate some of the questions you might hear when talking about time.  I found a concise summary of the history of telling time on ThinkQuest.org.  Time for Time offers a more in-depth look at the history of time.  For visual learners, BritishMuseum.org has a video covering the history of telling time.

Once children have learned to tell time, they can move on to other lessons involving time, such as understanding time zones and Daylight Saving Time.  World Time Zone has pages for time zone maps, Daylight Saving Time, a sun clock, and more.  Both Time & Date, and About's Geography site tell the history of how time zones came to be.  If you are looking for information about Daylight Saving Time, visit either WebExhibits.org or DaylightSavingTime.com.  

I know this is a lot of information.  It may take some time to get through it all.  ;-)  And by the way, don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour before you go to bed tonight.

Karissa