Sabreena is learning to tell time and it's practically an excrutiating process. We have a large "block" clock and a few transparent ones that we've been using. She just isn't "getting" it.
Does anyone know of any fun activities to help her?
thanks so much

We've used the little golden book "time to tell time" for a little over a year now. It correlates the time of day with a child-related activity. Maybe try talking to her about the time and her daily schedule.

My dh could always tell what time it was by the sun. It used to amaze me. I was living up north at the time. I moved south and now I can tell the time by the sun too, lol. I've been talking to my dd about that too. Doesn't work if you don't live in a sunny area though :-)

I find too that if it's not clicking, we'll skip it for a while and come back to it later. Often times she is just not ready for it but the second try it will click.
She also seems to thrive on one subject at a time. Like if we have been doing math, that is all she will want to do and she'll do it well. That worries me a bit but we're moving right along :-)

Do you have a working analog clock in the house so she can correlate the real time to what the clock looks like? I think the hardest part of trying to learn telling time on an analog clock, is that most people nowadays don't have or use analog clocks. The vcr, the microwave, the stereo, all have digital times on them. Even most watches are digital. I think most kids just can't see the connection because they aren't used to seeing time on the fashion of an analog clock.

We bought an Elmo analog clock that we out up in their school area, so they could see the minute hand moving, and how every minute the big hand would move. We'd also show them how the digital clock on our vcr showed the same time, just differently. We'd also get out a play analog clock and speed up time to show what would happen when an hour had passed and when 2 hours had passed, etc... We also bought a few extra working analog clocks and put one in each bedroom and the livingroom. At lunchtime we'd point out the time on the analog clock, at dinnertime we'd point out the time on the analog clock, at bedtime we'd point out the time on the analog clock. The repetition of seeing it and the correlating time of their activities, really helped.

When going over it, we always started with the o'clocks. 4 o clock, 5 o clock, 6 o clock, etc....

Then we did the 30's. 4:30, 5:30, etc...

When they got good with remembering those, and they had mastered counting by 5's, we moved onto learning how to tell time by the 5's. 4:05, 4:10, 4:15, 4:20 etc...

Marion, if she's having a hard time getting it, then stop for now. It's really hard for them to understand why the numbers are 1-12 but the actual minutes are 0-60. Has she learned to count by 5's yet? If she hasn't, it's going to be very hard for her. Make sure she can count by 5's first. Then, take it slow. If she's really struggling, drop it and come back to it later. She'll get it when she's ready. Try to make telling time an important part of her life. If she can see why it's so important, she'll be more likely to work on it.

I think when we started, we just did simple stuff. We always talked about time when it was on the hour. Nothing else. Then, when she could do that, we started talking about the hour and the half hour. Bit by bit we got it. When it clicked, she totally had it. We didn't use any books, texts or model clocks. We just used the real clock and I tried to incorporate telling time into our daily life. Make certain activites at specific times and have her read the clock with you. For example, Hadyn has a rest break everyday from 4-5. She goes to bed at 7:30. We go to classes at certain times. I had her read the clock with me everyday to know if it was time for *her* activities.

Now Hadyn can tell the time to the minute for just about anything. I just had to make it relevant to her life.

In my research I've found that telling time comes to each child at a different age. The Developmental Math curriculum doesn't even teach it as there's no way to be able to know where to put it in the books. So, if she's not getting it, regardless of age, I'd just back off for a while. I bet she'll surprise you in a few months by coming up and telling you the time. It will probably click at about the same time as it would if you continued to work with her, but it will be a lot easier on both of you.

I bought a big round plastic tablecloth on clearance -- the kind you'd put on a patio table. On the white side of it I put electrical tape markings, dividing it into quarters with longish lines, then shorter lines for the other hour markings. We played at making our bodies into the hands of the clock, using legs, arms, entire body of a younger sibling.

Dd didn't learn to tell time once and for all this way, but it was a fun and cheap adjunct to other methods.