Time’s up

A couple of months ago, my 3-year old wanted to learn to tell time. I’m actually ashamed to say that I thought it would be easy. She’s a smart little girl (really – I’m not just saying it because I’m her mother), and I thought it would be a pretty basic concept.

First, I sat her down with my watch, but it has Roman numerals, so we were finished before we even started. Next, I found a clock face with moving hands in a book. I tried to explain how the little hand points to the hour and the big hand points to the minutes. Now I was questioning my sanity. Was I really expecting a preschooler to understand the concept of multiplication? My daughter helpfully suggested I buy her a digital clock (“one that shows the real numbers”).

We shelved the topic until we found a learning-friendly watch, a FlikFlak, made by Swatch. The watch shows both the hour numbers and the minute numbers, along with color-coded characters on the hands. She chose a pirate-themed model, because it was blue, her favorite color. I’m looking into carrying the FlikFlaks, since they are pretty hard to find in Boston. I bought mine at the airport in Providenciales. In the meantime, you can check them out on the Swatch website or visit the Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

In any case, Klutz has just released “How to Tell Time,” a new activity book under their new Chicken Socks label, and it’s all about (can you guess?) telling time. It comes with a watch, and lots of helpful information and activities designed to teach children to tell time. It’s rated for ages 4 and up, but we’ll start a bit early. After all, I think she’s up for the challenge.

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