quarter of a cup

If you're up on the blog, then you know Evan's been learning to tell time. It's been fun and he's amazed me with how quickly he's learned it. Today I decided it was time for him to learn a new thing about the clock...quarter 'til, and quarter after.

So I ask Evan to run and get his little Post-its, 2 of them, and we stick them to the clock at 3 and 9. I remind him that he knows, "o'clock, thirty, and is able to count by 5's," but these new spots are 'quarter 'til the hour, and quarter after the hour.' He says okay.

I get out 4 quarters from my purse and a dollar bill. I get a bowl of water and the 1/4 measuring cup and the one cup measure, I draw the face of the clock on a piece of paper.

I do my little lesson...How many quarters makes a dollar? He knows this one. 4. You have the 4 quarters, and I have one dollar bill, we have the same. 25 cents is one of 4 parts, a forth, and we call it a 'quarter' since it's a forth of the dollar. He gets it, move on.

We bake a lot and he is familiar with recipe measures. So I ask him how many of these 1/4 cups of water will it take to fill this ONE cup measure. He guesses 3 or 4. I let him try it. 4 times is what it takes. 1/4 of it is called a quarter. He makes the connection between the quarters...we're getting somewhere.

I show him the drawn clock. I only wrote 12, 3, 6, 9 on it. I cut it in fourths. Each one is a quarter of an hour. THIS is quarter after...THIS is quarter 'til.

He looks over at the clock on the wall, it's was 8:55 a.m. and he says, in 20 minute it will be quarter after. "YES!" Wow. That was fast!

Then I close by saying, "Just notice the clock today and you'll see times when it's quarter after or quarter 'til, that's the way grown-ups say it."

He says, "That was a good lesson, Mom. Thanks," and he walks away from the counter. On to the next thing.

Hours later he yells, "Mom, it's a quarter of a cup 'til 4!"