Saturday, June 4, 2011

Learning Time

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We were given some Sonlight Curriculum the other day. In the box we found this clock. Selena has tried working on time before but the concept just didn’t seem to make sense to her. I pulled this clock out and thought let’s just see what she thinks. We first went through the different concepts of telling time, what the little hand means, the big hand, as well as the increments of the hour. We practiced reading the clock for a while, then I just started asking Selena to show me what random times would look like.

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After making her way around the clock a few times showing me random times, she ran off to get her clock, remember the one we made? Yes, she still has it and guess what it is still in pretty good shape.

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She informed me that her new clock tells the same time as her clock, meaning her homemade clock. Once again, I just love those light bulb moments. I just can’t emphasize enough on what it feels like to let your child lead you through their learning process. Sometimes we do have to push and say let’s try, if it doesn’t click at that moment, give it a while, and push it again. What a difference just a few months can bring in the development and readiness to learn a new concept. She is by no means telling time yet, but she is well on her way of understanding the concept at least.

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5 comments:

  1. That's so true, you can push and push, but it's so much easier if you just wait until they're ready, and let learning come.

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  2. We love Sonlight. I used it in the early years of our homeschooling. Their books are great and we still use them.
    Funny, Quentin asked me yesterday how to tell time and I went over it with him.

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  3. These light bulb moments are truly the best. It's also interesting for me to see how a lot of concepts are still "touch and go" for Anna - she kind of gets time, but at the same time she couldn't care less about actually being somewhere on time :)

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  4. R can tell time to the hour and half hour, but the rest is above her head. In our school system, they teach time to the hour and half hour in Kindergarten and then touch on the rest in first grade, so I think Selena is doing great! It is amazing to witness the light bulb moments - that's why I like to teach my children at home. It's not fair for the teachers to get all of those moments!

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  5. Those light bulb moments are the best

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