Learning the concept of time

[gf&js]

My 3 yr is driving me crazy with "what time is it?" and immediately follows up with "what does that mean?" I want to start introducing the concept of what the time means but how did you approach it? When do kids start to learn and understand what that means?

[Asha]

unless really advanced, most kids really only understand past, present, future. everything in the past is yesterday, everything in the future is tomorrow. they have an understanding of when certain activities should happen during the day like lunch, bath, bedtime, but really don't correlate that with a specific time. now, this is what i gathered with working with preschool and kinder kids when i was a teacher.

you could start posting a schedule in your home have a picture/name of the activity, and the time its going to take place shown with a picture of an analog clock.

[meganth]

Granted this was 30 years ago, but my mom taught me the concept of time with Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street. Mister Rogers was a half an hour and Sesame Street was one hour. If a road trip was two Seasme Streets i knew we were going to be in that car forever. And if my dad would be home from work in less than a Mister Rogers i knew he'd be home soon.

[Asha]

meganth - that is so cute!!!

[ManteoChik]

Granted this was 30 years ago, but my mom taught me the concept of time with Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street. Mister Rogers was a half an hour and Sesame Street was one hour. If a road trip was two Seasme Streets i knew we were going to be in that car forever. And if my dad would be home from work in less than a Mister Rogers i knew he'd be home soon.

This is what my stepmom did with my little sister. The kid was seriously obsessed with time when she was 3-4 years old. If you'd tell her, "we're going to the store in a little while" she always wanted to know how long. She used the show Little Bear and would tell her.....1 episode of Little Bear.

[jay&erinn]

DD is usually satisfied when I use specific reference points for her- after lunch but before little sister's nap, before preschool, etc. She just doesn't get the hour/minute concept yet.
For days we use bigger reference points. If it's 5 days away, I'll say Monday you go to A's (babysitters), Tuesday is preschool, Wednesday to A's, Thursday to preschool and Friday's the big day. Then all week we'll count down, reviewing how many days we have left and the big thing that happens that day.
Weeks and months, we use major holidays and birthdays to reference (like Christmas is after Daddy's birthday and after Thanksgiving), but that's still really vague for DD.

[NotDesperate]

my mom taught me the concept of time with Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street. Mister Rogers was a half an hour and Sesame Street was one hour.

My mom did this, too! :D