We will tell no time before its time

The students here have been analog-deficient for so long that its become embarrassing. Clock-time is one of those sneaky questions traditional school parents use to test the knowledge of homeschool kids. Its innocent enough - "Hi Junior! How do you like homeschool? Oh, that's nice - what time is it on the clock over there?"

For the Academy's students, that's a deer in the headlights moment. We've just not spent much, um, time on it. Ask 'em the time on a digital clock though, and DAMN! they nail it every time. Of course, its more of a new-agey interpretation, but everyone knows what "six-two-seven o'clock" means, right?

Anyway, today we decided it was high time to take a leap backwards, technologically, and get right with the analog world. It went surprisingly well. By building our own clocks, we were able to really understand the concepts. Here is the technique we used.

We created three clocks, each with onehand. The first clock was the hour clock, the second was the minute clock, and the third was the seconds clock. Each had an identical "hand". The hour clock had 12 marks on it, and the corresponding numbers 1-12. The minute and seconds clocks had 60 marks on it, with the 5-minute interval marks standing out, and the corresponding 5-minute numbers on them, 5-60. The actual making of the clocks was where much of the learning took place. When they were complete, we discussed the differences, and noted that the minute and seconds clocks were identical, and also noted how they differed from the hour clock.

Then we got comfortable with how each clock worked, starting with the seconds clock, and working our way up to the hour clock, tying each into the next, and then discussed speed. All this really helped them understand the relationships.

Then we tried some relationship exercises. I'd rotate the hand of the seconds clock some number of times, and then ask them to set the hand on the minute clock accordingly. When they were comfortable with that, we moved onto the minute/hour clocks.

When they were comfortable telling the time using the three-clock arrangement, we discussed the impracticality of a three-clock system. We took this to the extreme by putting on three watches and pretending they represented the hour/minute/seconds clocks. We then set out to combine our clocks.

Obviously we started with the hour clock as the base, and added in the elements of the minute clock - the hand, the additional "tick marks", and the numbers of the 5-minute increments. When we were done, the clock looked very messy. We cleaned it up by removing the numbers for the 5-minute increments, after noting that they corresponded with the hour increments/numbers. What we had at that point was a clock where the numbers (1-12) represented the hours, and the tick-marks going all the way around represented the minutes, with special markings for the 5-minute increments, and special markings for the quarter-hours. In other words, a normal-looking clock, with the exception of having two identical hands.

We then set out to merge in the elements of the seconds clock. The students recognized that there was nothing to do but bring over the hand from the seconds clock (again, identical in every respect to the hands from the hour and minute clocks).

Now, with our merged clock complete, I would set the hands and ask the students to tell me the time. They had paid good attention to the merging of the hands, and did a good job of remembering which was the hour hand, which was the minute hand, and which was the second hand. But I mixed them up and they realized they could not tell the difference. So we set out to make the hands different - one they colored black, one red, and the other orange. At that point, they were doing a decent job of telling the time. The method we used was to get the hour straight first, then get the minute, and then the seconds.

At this point, we looked at an actual clock. They recognized how the hands were different, and understood why. We discussed the absence of the seconds hand, and talked about why many wall-clocks don't have one, while many watches do. We discussed clock purpose and usage, and tied that to the presence or absence of the second hand. They did a great job of understanding all this.

From there, it was a simple task to help them understand the general standards of hands (short and fat; skinny and long; skinnier, long and red). We remade our clock hands to fit the standard. Then we talked about how to actually SAY the time, and WRITE the time. And then we used the apple-pie method of discussing quarter hours and half hours, using our minute clock, and tying back to the actual clock. It took about an hour and a half, but they have it down cold now.

So I say, bring the clock questions on, baby! I have no doubt that the Academy's students will look at their interrogator with the blank stare of a deer caught in the headlights...