Early maths
Teaching the Clock: Why It Is Hard, and an Order That Works
A clock face breaks most of the rules a child has just learned about numbers. Taking it in small steps, in the right order, saves a lot of tears.
Telling the time from a clock with hands is one of the harder things we ask young children to learn. Adults forget this, because we read a clock without thinking. It is worth looking at what a child is actually faced with.
Why it is hard
The numbers mean two things. When the short hand points to 3, it means three. When the long hand points to 3, it means fifteen. Nothing on the clock tells you that.
The little hand is the big one. The short hand shows hours, which are the larger unit. The long hand shows minutes, the smaller unit. That is backwards from what a child would guess.
It counts in sixties. Everything else a child has met counts in tens. An hour has sixty minutes, and "half past" means thirty, not fifty.
It goes round. After twelve comes one. Numbers are not supposed to do that.
The hour hand does not stay still. At half past three, the short hand is not on the 3. It is halfway to the 4. Many children read it as half past four.
We say it in odd ways. "Quarter to five" means 4:45. The number you say is not the hour it currently is.
Given all that, it is no surprise that many children are not secure with clocks until seven or eight, or later.
An order that works
Take it one step at a time, and do not move on until the last step is easy.
Step 1: time words, with no clock
Morning, afternoon, evening. Before and after. Yesterday and tomorrow. "After lunch we will go to the park." A child needs a feel for time passing before a clock means anything.
Step 2: the hour hand alone
Cover or ignore the long hand. Just look at the short one. "It is pointing at the 7. It is about seven o'clock." Some teaching clocks have only an hour hand for this reason. You can tell the time roughly with it and nothing else.
Step 3: o'clock
Bring in the long hand. When it points straight up at the 12, it is exactly something o'clock, and the short hand says which.
Step 4: half past
The long hand points straight down at the 6. The short hand has moved halfway to the next number. The hour is the number it has already passed.
That last sentence is the one to repeat. "Which number has the short hand gone past?"
Step 5: quarter past and quarter to
Only when half past is solid.
Step 6: five-minute steps and the minutes in between
This needs counting in fives, so it usually comes later in school. Our game Count in Steps practises exactly that counting.
What our game covers
Tell the Time stops at steps three and four on purpose. It shows a clock face and asks whether it is an exact hour or half past, and which hour.
Two details are worth knowing. The hour hand is always yellow and the minute hand is always blue, so you can ask, "Where is the blue hand pointing? Up or down?" before anything else.
And one of the wrong answers always swaps o'clock and half past for the same hour. If your child picks that one, they have read the hour correctly and only need to look again at the long hand. That tells you which half of the job needs practice.
Things that help at home
Have a clock with hands and clear numbers where your child can see it. Many homes now have only digital clocks, and a child cannot learn what they never see.
Tie it to the day. "It is seven o'clock. Bath time." "When the long hand gets to the bottom, we will go." Real reasons to look at the clock are worth more than any worksheet.
Make a clock. A paper plate, two card hands and a split pin. Let your child set it to the times that matter to them.
Use the same words every time. "O'clock" and "half past". Leave "thirty" and "six-thirty" for later, when digital time comes in.
Do not correct the hour hand trap too quickly. If your child says "half past four" for half past three, ask where the short hand is. Has it reached the 4 yet? Let them see it.
Digital clocks
Digital time is easier to read and harder to understand. A child can read "3:30" aloud without any idea that it is halfway between three and four. The clock with hands shows time as a distance round a circle, which is why schools still teach it.
It makes sense to learn both, and to link them: "The hands say half past three. The digital clock says three thirty. Same time."
Be patient
This is a skill that comes in slowly and then suddenly. A child who seems stuck for months will often get it in a week when they are ready. Keep the practice short and matter-of-fact.
A round of an HTML5 game takes two or three minutes, which is about right. A real clock on the wall, looked at ten times a day, will do the rest.