Telling the time

A few days ago I was in our local chemist picking up a few bits and bobs that we needed. Whilst I was browsing the shelves, I saw a child’s Minnie Mouse watch. It was on the reduced items shelf priced at £1.99.

“A bargain,” I thought to myself!

Our twins have one book that is aimed at helping children to tell the time. It’s all about a bear who goes on a journey and on each page of the book there is a clock with a different time on it. I’ve also bought the girls a big wooden clock puzzle. They have to put the clock together by placing the right pieces into the right holes and it has two wooden dials to help children learn how to tell the time.

Unfortunately, they only had one Minnie Mouse watch on the shelf so I had to leave it behind as our twins would just end up fighting over it, but it did get me thinking about when is the right time to start teaching them how to tell the time.

I talk to our twins about the time now and again, but not to any great degree. I’ll say things like when the big hand is on the 12 and the small hand is on the 5, Daddy will be home. They can both say the word ‘clock’ and I think they understand the concept of time.

For example when I ask them if they want to go to music group, they nod and say yes. I’ll then explain to them that they’ll have to have a shower, brush their teeth and get dressed first and they seem to understand.

When I was a little girl I had many watches, but one that always stood out in my mind was my Flik Flak watch. It was bright pink, had flowers on and I absolutely loved it! It was a bit like this one from The Watch Hut:

It’s simple design and easy to read clock face is perfect for little girls. I’m thinking about buying our twins one each for their birthday next month.

I always used to wear watches, but when our twins were born I stopped because I was worried about catching our girls on it, but now they’re a bit older I’d like to buy myself a watch again.

Here are some of my favourites: