A Watch To Help Your Kids Tell the Time

I have an 8 year old son who has a gift for Maths. Jack pretty much loves all things involving numbers except for telling the time. I too remember finding it challenging to learn to tell the time and understand it to be a fairly common situation for kids. I can see how it is important to get the fundamentals of time telling down early. This ensures that learning continues beyond basic time telling to more complex questioning of measuring time lapses, equations involving time and eventually using time on a day-to-day basis. I know that my 8 year old has already switched off and in one of many statements, “Just can’t do it!”.

Easyread Time Teacher Watch

The Easyread Time Teacher claims to be the simplest and most effective time teaching system for children.

With three kids from ages 3 to 8 I was happy to put this claim to the test across each age group.

How it works

Other things worth noting about this teaching watch

The Easyread Time Teacher is literally easy to read in terms of big main numbers, as well as being a brightly coloured, engaging, fun-looking watch. It has 3 steps as shown above that make it easier for a child to deduce the time. It is not an elephant watch or any other cartoon character but it is stylish enough that I have worn the grey version out and colourful enough to be exactly the perfect gift for a child. It’s a good-sized face and after buying both my kid’s different watches previously, I wish I had known about this alternative.

How my 3 year old reacted.

She liked it and most pleasing for me was that the existing band fit around her wrist. This has been an issue with kids’ watches I have bought in the past. At 3 years old she is a little too young to learn to tell the time but it is a great starting piece to get used to wearing a watch.

How my 5 year old liked the Easyread Time Teacher Watch.

While Tom is not quite learning to tell the time at school yet, we used the watch to support his number recognition. We were able to reinforce that it was between 9 and 10 o’clock as an example and he was able to understand that this was correct and that this had meaning in the real world. The beginnings of learning to tell the time were definitely there.

How my 8 year old liked wearing the Easyread Time Teacher Watch.

For me, this is where the magic happened. The main issue, (I see) with learning to tell the time, is that for a complex process, there are only a few steps involved. Further, on a conventional clock, these steps seem to combine into one making it more difficult for children to separate and work out.
As a parent it is difficult to positively reinforce any small steps that might lead to the correct time telling. Ultimately it means that children are often unable to have any positive reinforcement in their learning of the time and in turn become frustrated, disengaged and resist further learning. For Jack, you only have to mention TIME and his mind switches off.

 

 

How the EasyRead Time Teacher Watch changes the process.

The Easyread Time Teacher Watch means you can break down the steps involved in time telling and support the positive learning by reinforcing each successful step. I have then partnered this learning with the every-day home clock on the wall and challenge Jack to see if he can use both watches to tell the time and then just use the home clock to tell the time 5 or so minutes later. It is only early days but we are leagues ahead of where we were.

My thoughts on the Easyread is that it is the ideal first watch to gift a child. There are lots of different colour options and it makes sense to support learning in a real world way which is exactly what a watch like this does. It will still require ongoing reinforcement of learning but the child is a much more active participant and much more likely to get it right because they are supported in their learning.

I loved this product so much that after receiving the watch to review I asked The Coffee Apple not to pay me anything (but to let me keep the watch). I think products like this (that support active real world learning) deserve of all the free PR they can get.

I think this watch would also be the ideal addition to a classroom environment, perhaps borrowed out in some classrooms like they might a class pet or class bear or book – but instead lend out the watch- and give kids an opportunity to be supported in telling the time and report back on their findings.

The Easyread Time Teacher watch is water resistant and priced affordably. You can find out more about it and buy it from a range of retailers and amazon.