We began working more on telling time this week. Most students are able to read a clock accurately the majority of the time with only occasional minor confusion with the hour. At this time we are only working with the hour and half hour units of measure.
However, many students show more difficulty when we begin to work in elapsed time.
Examples:
It is now 6:00. I finished my homework at 4:30. How long ago did I complete my homework?
It is 7:30. We arrive at the field at 7:50. We are going to football practice that starts at 8:00. It will end at 9:30. How long will we practice football? How long did it take us to arrive at the field?
It is 9:30. You can watch TV for one hour. What time do you have to turn the TV off?
All of these are real life situations that involve the passing of time, or elapsed time. This concept of time in the past and the future can be quite confusing to young students who are developmentally just coming into an awareness of how long tihngs take.
If you would like to really help your child there are some very simple things you can do at home that will make a huge differnce for them.
Purchase an inexpensive watch, not digital but analog, and have them begin to wear it. Off and on through the day ask them questions similar to the ones above. You could say it is 7:30 now and we will eat in 30 minutes, what time will we eat? We are going to town to run some errands. What time is it now? What time is it when we are done? How much time passed? How long did it take us? ETC.
These real world uses, and the art of practicing, will help your child gain confidence and knowledge and help them to become comfortable with the telling of time and also in understanding the passage of time.
Also time can be complicated. We have many ways of expressing time. We have digital (as the kids say, the easy one!), analog, we have hours, minutes, seconds, days, weeks, months, years, and we express time as we read it in a variety of ways. It has its own language.
7:30, half past 7, 30 minutes after 7 o'clock, 30 minutes before 8 o'clock. All of these express the same time on the clock. We will be studying later quarter hours, and moving into more depth.
I do these same types of exercises in class with my students. Now when the ask how long until lunch I will refer them to the clock to see what time it is now and then tell them when we eat and let them figure out how long it is. Students must practice this skill in real life in order to progress. 3rd grade is a great time to become the owner of an inexpensive watch and begin to become the "master of your own time!".
Another real life skill that many students don't seem to know much about is counting back change. The use of money is lost on many students. If you have change ask your child to count it for you. Play games where you purchase something and give them money and they have to make change. This is truly a very confusing skill for many students. If you purchase something using cash go over the transaction with your child and let them count your change so they can get used to handling and understanding money in the real world. This is so important for our children. Understanding the value of money and understanding how to spend and receive money back is so important in life.
As I drove through McDonalds today and bought a soda the lady punched in my amount and the machine dispersed the change and she counted out the bills. Due to so much automation, which is wonderful, many young adults today are even confused if the computers are down on how to figure out how much change to give back. This is such a shame.
The most important part of educaiton is to teach our students how to learn, how to be successful, to give them the skills they need to be successful and confident. We need to constantly keep in mind the real world and what they need to know to be able to do whatever they want in life. These small things involving money and time are truly gifts that you will give to your children! Not hard to do, just takes some conscious effort, and some "time!".
