Teaching Children to Read the Clock

One of the most important things we as parents do is we teach our children about time.

We teach them important things like reading the clock.

You actually think that's important?

I'm going to teach you to read the clock.

I'm going to teach you to read the time.

Why?

Because it's important that you know the time.

Why?

Because how would you know when to get up to go to school?

Mummy would make me.

What if mummy wasn't there?

You'd wake me.

What if we both weren't there?

We wouldn't go to school.

How would you know when breakfast was?

I'd be hungry.

Shut up!

Somebody came along to you and said, what time is it?

And you didn't know, you'd feel stupid.

Why doesn't he feel stupid?

He didn't know.

Let me go through this whole thing.

I did it myself with my son.

I'm going to teach you how to read the clock.

This is a clock.

It's not actually a clock.

It is a clock, but it's not a clock.

It's a watch.

It's called a watch.

It's a wrist watch because it's on my wrist.

Yes, it's a wrist watch because it's on my wrist and I watch it.

Yes, it's very good.

Now, time is made up of zones.

Periods of time.

There's hours and minutes.

No, not hours.

No, they're not hours.

They're hours.

They don't belong to us.

It's a different spelling.

H-O-U-R-S.

Not howards.

It's silent.

I don't know.

Now, on every day there are 24 hours.

24 of these hours.

12 in the day and 12 in the night.

I know I said there are 24 hours in a day.

12 in the day, 12 in the night.

But a day is made up of a day and a night.

What?

What are you, stupid?

I couldn't very well say Monday, Monday night.

Everybody knows when I say Monday I'm talking about the 24 hours.

Now shut up and listen.

Now, on every clock or watch there are three pointers.

They're called hands, alright?

They point to the hour, alright?

You understand that?

There's the hour hand.

That's the first hand.

The hour hand.

The second hand is the minute hand.

And the third hand is the second hand.

Shut up!

We'll do away.

Forget about the third hand.

Forget it!

It's gone, alright?

It's gone.

Now we have two hands.

On the face of the clock there are two hands, alright?

There's the hour hand, which is the fat hand.

And there's the thin hand, which is the minute hand.

So you have a fat hand and a thin hand, alright?

Fat hand, hours.

Thin hand, minutes.

Right.

Now up the top of the clock, you see the number up there, 1 and 2.

1 and 2 is 12.

And it's not 3.

It would be 3 if you joined them together.

We already have a 3 here on the side by itself.

We don't need two bloody 3s on a clock.

So it's 12.

Alright?

1 and 2 is 12.

So when the fat hand and the thin hand are pointing at the 1 and the 2,

it is 12 o'clock.

In the daytime!

Because it would be dark and you wouldn't be able to see it!

Now the thin hand starts to move away from the fat hand.

It likes the fat hand.

Yes, it likes the fat hand, but if it wants to tell the time,

it has to go away from the fat hand.

So it moves away from the fat hand,

leaving the fat hand at the 1 and the 2,

and then it comes over to the 1 here by itself.

You see the 1?

To the right of the 1 and the 2?

Now, that 1 is 5.

Because it is, it's 5.

2 is 10, 3 is 15, 4 is 20, 5 is 25, 6 is a half.

Half!

Because 12 is the whole, so 6 is the half!

7 is 25 to, or 35 past.

So now what's actually happening,

is the thin hand is moving around the clock,

from the 1 to the 2,

which is the 5 and the 10,

and while he's doing that,

the fat hand is moving slowly away from the 1 and the 2,

yes, because fat hands move slowly, that's right,

fat things waddle away, yes, that's it.

And now, by the time the fat hand has got around to the 1,

which was the 5,

when the minute hand was pointing at it,

and the 1 has come back right up to the 1 and the 2,

it is now what time?

It is not 5 o'clock!

It's 1 o'clock!

Because when the thin hand points at it, it's minutes!

The fat hand points at it, it's an hour!

Now you be a good boy and learn how to read the clock,

and I'll buy you a digital watch.