learn about daylight savings time: turn and tell clock

If ONLY our littlest ones knew and understood Daylight Savings Time.

We love that the Turn and Tell Clock makes learning to tell time a LOT easier for kids, and Daylight Savings Time is the perfect time to start talking about time!

Daylight Savings, Waylight Schmavings.

For years and years and years, the ‘spring forward, fall back’ deal has caused my little familia more headache than I’d ever care to admit.

Naps gone. Bedtime routine zapped. Dinner without kid falling asleep? Forgettabout it.

Kids have no sense of chaos that ensues in a parent’s head when her kids tear into her room at 5 o’clock in the morning saying that they’re ready to play.  They really don’t.

learn about daylight savings time: turn and tell clock

Daylight Savings time. Ahhhhh.

When kids jump out of bed at 5 o’clock in the morning instead of 6 o’clock. They can barely keep their eyes open through dinner, and it’s an honest-to-goodness song and dance to keep them awake until 7 at night.

What we do before Daylight Savings Time

Though understanding the “why” behind Daylight Saving Time may be a little difficult for most kids (and adults, too!), many kids can more clearly understand the concept of that lost or gained hour with the help of a hands-on learning clock like Melissa & Doug’s Turn & Tell Clock.

For the few days leading up to Daylight Saving Time, in a free moment here or a free moment there, I would ask my kids to use the hands on the  Turn & Tell Clock to show me the time when:

• we leave our house for school;
• he or she eats lunch at school;
• school ends;
• we usually eat dinner;
• we start baths and books before bed;
• different activities begin and end, like soccer, Brownies, religion class, and gymnastics.

They could always check their work with the numeric, or analog clock by opening a small window on the clock’s face where the same time would be shown “digitally”.

And then I simply reminded them that Daylight Saving Time was going to begin late, late Saturday night into early, early Sunday morning when they were still sleeping. What Daylight Saving Time meant was that the clocks were turned back one hour in the fall and moved forward one hour in the spring to move sunlight to  better hours for workers.

How we play with the Turn and Tell Clock

So after I asked them to show me the times as mentioned above, I challenged then by asking them to show me:

• one hour before or one hour after;
• thirty minutes before or after;
• fifteen minutes before or after;
• five minutes before or after.

And they’d move the hands, tell me the time, and then check in the little window to see if they were correct.

The ‘Spring Forward, Fall Back process is not rocket science, but for a lot of kids, telling time is the beast of beasts.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Originally published November 7, 2013

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