Telling time

Hulk's latest math unit was on telling time.  He has primarily been following Math Mammoth because he enjoys the workbook style program, but we supplement with games from RightStart for extra practice and just because they're fun.  This unit was more of a 50/50 split between Math Mammoth and RightStart however: I wanted to focus on clock time more than calendar concepts, so I filled in a lot of activities and extra learning from lessons in RightStart A and B related to telling time on an analog clock.

After a week of learning about telling time to the hour and half hour, I felt like Hulk would fly right through the activity to place the hour numbers on a blank clock face.  Actually, he had to repeat this activity quite a few times to remember which number was in which spot.  By the end, this became very easy for him, but I'm glad we spent the time with it (I almost skipped this activity thinking it would be too simple).  Now I know he has a strong idea in his mind of what a clock looks like and how it works. Later on in the lessons, he used a clockface with numbers and had to figure out which number of minutes corresponds to each number place.  This activity was a new challenge, but he was able to excel at it after much practice and exposure to the clockface as well.

I loved that we had a geared clock to progress the minutes and hours and give Hulk a more accurate idea of how time looks.  Athena still struggles with time when the hour hand moves far past the hour, which I believe is due to always being instructed with a clock where you had to move the minute hand and the hour hand individually (the minute hand would not progress the hour hand around the clockface like a real, geared clock does).  I could already see Hulk having an easier time understanding how the hour relates to which number the hour hand has passed, rather than the hand needing to point directly at the number.

The greatest benefit to using RightStart is the easy implementation of the games.  They are an integral part of the lessons and learning, and the kiddoes beg to play them-- literally BEG.  At this level, many of them are variations on standard games using nonstandard cards (pictured above is a matching memory-style game using cards with clockfaces and clocktimes to match), but that is even better: the kiddoes are already familiar with the game, but now they can do it with a new concept in mind.  This keeps it simple, fun, and still a challenge-- a winning combination in our house.

 

I really never imagined this level of excitement over drilling basic math concepts, but RightStart's activities and games have really turned my thinking (and the kiddoes') around.  The best part is that I can really see how much they're learning, which makes me a very happy mama indeed.

--Little Miss Crazy