So, in continuation of my last post – even though I didn’t plan it that way….Kai learnt to tell the time on an analog clock today.
And yes. I mean today. From not knowing anything about it when he woke this morning. To telling the time to the minute by the time he goes to bed!
I don’t know about you, but school made telling the time some kind of BIG deal! It seemed impossible to grasp. An abstract concept. Is it 12.30 or half past twelve? If you understand half-hours, lets move on to quarter-hours. They made you think you had to learn it all sequentially. That it takes years to master. And it did take years. Because they tried to get you to understand it before your brain was ready…years before your brain was ready.
So. My story, before I get sidetracked! Well. Kai’s story, really!
As I’ve said, he has suddenly become more number literate, and had been reading the digital clock on his computer, working out how long till x’oclock, etc.
But he’s never read an analog clock. We used to have one, but now we don’t.
It’s his 10th birthday next week, and we met friends at an indoor play area today and they gave him his gift, which he opened.
Well! Slight diversion to show said AWESOME gift! A Harry Potter wolf patronus locket/pocket watch! That glows in the dark!!
So. My Harry Potter-, Pop Culture-, Wolf-loving child was over the moon with his gift!!
After we all marveled at it for a while, he said ‘I’ll have to learn to read the time using this now.’ And I said ‘Sure. Just put that clock next to your computer and then you will figure it out.’
He asked a few questions, which I answered. Then went to play. In the car later on the way to Nana’s, he said ‘I don’t get how this works.’ I tried to explain, then heard myself saying ‘This is 10-past, that is 10-to, but that could also be 3.50, not just 10 to 4….’ and it sounded terrible to me! And it sounded terrible to him….he told me to stop, that it was confusing him more!
So. We got to Nana’s, and he disappeared into the spare room to watch TV….or so I thought (I’m pretty sure he spent most of it figuring out the clock).
We headed home in the car, and he got his watch out again. He said ‘I think I have it. Each one of these is 5 minutes (it was), and each little mark is 1 minute (it was)’…Then he said ‘I’m going to figure out the time without looking at the car clock (digital)’.
And he counted in 5’s, then 1’s, to 5.34pm. Exactly. Quickly. In less than an hour he’d pretty much gone from having no idea to mastering telling the time to the minute! WHaaaattt!!!
He did it a couple more time on the way home. He got it right. I said – ‘You know what, you also used your 5 x tables.’ He asked how….I told him you counted 5, 10, 15 as you went around the clock – that’s counting in 5’s…..he said ‘Oh! So THAT’S what times tables are! I always wondered when Will and Tommy talked about them’ (his cousins).
So yeah. I know I shouldn’t still be surprised by these things…but I am. More surprised than I was with him learning to read….because this was QUICK! So quick! And it seemed so hard at school….
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