Kids amaze me...

Kids really can learn just about anything you put in front of them.

I bought a clock (thanks Mom - Christmas $) from IKEA yesterday. A clock that has hands and a face. Any more, they are almost old fashioned with the technology of today and everything being digital.

It's come to my attention while teaching, that many kids don't know how to read a CLOCK. These are not small children, these are big kids, 5th and 6th graders or better. One asked, "When do we go to lunch?" I pointed at the schedule on the board and said, "It says right there." She said she knew it was 11:30 but when was that...so I pointed to clock and said, "There's the clock," which said 11:20 but she couldn't read it. Finally I told her the time and that lunch was in 10 minutes. Ugh....something she ought to know.

So I brought home the clock, gave Evan a little lesson and hoped something would start to stick. I know he's little, but he's smart, and he does get stuff, so...you never know. We talked about he little hand pointing to the hour (the time) and that if wasn't to the next number, even if it was close, it still belonged to the other number. We talked about STRAIGHT UP being o'clock, and straight down being, 'thirty.' We talked about the little minutes and counting by 5's. (He can count by 10's and if we practice, he'll get counting by 5's no time flat!)

So, tonight we're playing a game (which I need to do a posting on 'games') when he looks at the clock and says, "It's almost 6 o'clock, but it isn't, it's still 5, right!?" YES!!!! You are right my smart little man. How exciting!