What time is it?

Little girl is now proficient in telling time on the hour, and has been for a little while.  So I decided it was time we started to learn minutes.  She is 5 years and 5 months.

I started out by playing a game with her in the car - counting to 100 by 10s, counting to how old Mommy is, etc.  Then I started counting to those numbers by 5s.  I asked her to try, and repeat after me.  She usually resists this kind of quiz if it isn't a game, so I kept up the game and she was able to count by fives up to 20.  My goal is to keep practicing this, then move on to counting by twos.

I created some clock pointers labeled from 5 minutes up to 60 minutes.  First I had her try to put them in order, which she had some trouble with.  After I helped her arrange them, we placed them around the clock.

Then I talked to her about how there are 60 minutes in one hour, and moved the minute hand one minute at a time, stopping at 5 minutes to show her that we were at the "1".  Then I continued counting until we got to 10 and the "2".  We discussed how each number represented 5 minutes, and then we started counting by fives around the clock.

This was definitely a more challenging exercise for her, so I am looking forward to reviewing this during our math time.  I've been trying to remind her of what we learned now when we look at the clock, and we practice telling the time in hours and minutes.

Skip counting

Ok, so I admit, teaching math to a kindergartener is a more difficult than I expected. 

There, I said it. :-) 

I mean, it’s just adding right?  K-girl is actually doing well, I just expected to show her how it works, and ‘voila’ (dream world, I know).

So I’m on the lookout for good games and resources for math.  Here’s one that I came across that I think we will really enjoy!

Homeschool Creations has a really nice skip counting charts – today we will start with 2’s! 

We did have fun the other day playing “store”.  I created a quick chart with prices (all in pennies).  Then I gave her 10 pennies in a purse and she could buy the items.  When we came get to the end of each shopping trip, she would have to choose items based on how many pennies she had left (now that’s real math).