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Math Mammoth 2 clocks... past, till, me poking myself in the eye...


staceyobu
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We just went through that chapter. It cracked me up a little b/c that method of telling seemed more European than American. DD was confused at why I would even say anything was X minutes till Y:00. She picked it up pretty quickly, but if it's too hard for your child to get it now try coming back to it in a month or two. In the meantime point out how there are always "minutes left" until the next hour. Start with 5 minutes or 1 minute.

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My 2nd grader had a hard time with that too. I couldn't understand how he didn't get it. LOL I'm just glad that we're past that section. ;) He seems to get everything else okay. He wines a bit, hates word problems--hates everything, actually. He hates school in general. LOL But at least I'm not pulling my hair out when it comes to math now. The week or so we spent on those time pages was horrible!

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Can I just not worry about this and move on?

I'd just casually bring it up as a countdown type thing before an activity, for example, how long till noon, the cartoon is on at 5:00 and how long do you have to wait, how long till the cake is done cooking, and such. Some of it can just be you making a statement.

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My second grader can do it just fine, but I forgot to teach it to my now 6th grader. oops (it is one the many reason to NOT change math programs unless you absolutely have to). My older dd can't understand why you just don't SAY what time it actually is. She's all for digital clocks.

 

I would move on as long as you stay with the same math program, it will come up again. :) It is also very helpful to work on skip counting by 5's forward and backward.

Edited by Karen in CO
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Glad to hear we're not the only ones struggling with this!

 

DD (second grade) and I just had a conversation about it last night. She was bemoaning that she hates telling time because it's hard, and said why can't we just use digital clocks. I said what about when she needs to read a watch? She said she'd get a digital watch. I told her they're ugly, and she said she'd just use sticky jewels to make it pretty.

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I think that is a dated way of saying it anyway so I just get them to say "before" and it makes more sense. I love the way MM teaches clocks btw :)

Plus does it make more sense to 20 til 12 than 11:40? 11:40 makes more sense to me because that is the actual time.

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It is a dated way to tell time, but clock arithmetic has a lot more to do with arithmetic than it does time. The past and till will help later in elapsed time besides helping with addition and subtraction now. Clock arithmetic is also the very first introduction to base-60 math and the idea that the decimal system isn't the only way to count.

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I'd just casually bring it up as a countdown type thing before an activity, for example, how long till noon, the cartoon is on at 5:00 and how long do you have to wait, how long till the cake is done cooking, and such. Some of it can just be you making a statement.

 

:iagree: This is what worked best for ds to learn telling time. We put an analog clock up in the living room, initially with a digital clock next to it (when he was three he was fascinated with time) so he could compare them. Now we just have the analog clock and if he wants to know "how long until treat time?" I tell him to look and figure it out. He knows to count by 5's for each number so just counts backwards. I figure how much time is left is more important to know then a different way of saying the same thing, so that's how we approach it.

 

A toy Judy clock has also helped both kids a lot in learning time.

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We are dealing with it for MM 3 this week. We are new to homeschooling. And I do not think my son has learned a thing through the teaching. Rather he's picked up things on his own and through games amazingly well. The school kept testing him at a fourth grade level in second grade.

Only problem, there are some holes. Multiplication and some division, he's awesome. Clocks....sigh....not so much.

I think after almost an hour of working on it today, he has it mastered. The smile today was far better than the tears yesterday. But he had to look at as fractions for the quarters and half of a clock and I divided the clock down the middle for after and "until" instead of "till".

All in all, I'd say skip the book work now, move on, and use it in day to day things. By next year, it should be easier.

Good luck!

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My 2nd grader can tell time just fine, but when we recently got to that particular section of MM it was torturous for everyone involved. He just couldn't seem to get it. I ended up only doing half of that chapter before deciding that it just didn't matter. We skipped ahead to the next chapter and will come back to it later...or maybe just wait until it comes up again next year in MM3, LOL!

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I moved on!

 

DD was breezing through everything else and got stumped for a while with time. We tried for a while, I cut up colour coded fraction over-lays, got a big poster etc. Drove.me.insane. :D

 

She ended up purchasing a great watch with her birthday money, it has 'past', 'to', 'minute' written on the minute hand, 'hour' written on the hour hand, numbers for the hours and the minutes. She figured it out. I think she just needed to let the concept roll around in her head for a while before it sunk in.

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