Hey there! You’re listening to the Mighty Mommy with some quick and dirty tips for practical parenting.

I went to a book fair at my daughter’s school today and let my kids pick out a couple of books they wanted to bring home. My two-year-old son chose a book called Midnight Fright by Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook. It’s a sweet little Halloween-themed book that has a moveable clock on the front and tells a story in rhyme that counts down to midnight on Halloween. My son loves clocks and a friend of mine had recently suggested that I talk about the concept of time in one of my shows. It was such a wonderful coincidence and … well … good timing for my son to find this book today.

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A toddler’s concept of time is completely different from an adult’s. That is probably an understatement. Do toddlers actually have a concept of time? If you put your child in a timeout for two minutes, does he know when two minutes are up? Probably not. We use so many different terms to describe time to our children; how can they possibly understand what we mean? “I’ll be back in five minutes” won’t mean much to a toddler even if you time yourself and come back in exactly five minutes. We usually say things like, “I’ll play with you in a little bit,” “I’ll be right back,” or “Give me just a few minutes.” All of these things can be very confusing to a child who is just learning the concept of time. If you start early and you are consistent, you can help them get a head start on learning this very complicated concept.

A good friend of mine told me that he’s begun using a timer to help his son understand when a certain amount of time has passed. This is one idea that really works well with children who need time limits set. It helps them by letting them know when a certain amount of time has passed as well as giving them a heads-up when an event has come to its conclusion. So, whether it’s a three-minute timeout, two minutes of teeth brushing, or ten more minutes of coloring before it’s time to sit down for dinner, a timer can let your children know when each event is over. You can also use timers to make tasks more fun. You can set a timer for ten minutes and have your kids race the clock to get their rooms clean, or their pajamas on. Timers also help to take the blame off the parent when a fun activity has to come to an end. This can be helpful when your child gets angry with the parent who is telling him that it’s time to stop playing.

Another way to communicate time passing is to use landmark events throughout the day to mark when things will happen. If your child is on a regular schedule, he will start to understand that certain events happen at regular intervals. My daughter goes to pre-school in the afternoon. We always have lunch before she leaves and then once she’s gone, I begin the naptime ritual with my son. He understands that it’s time for his nap after he says goodbye to his sister. He doesn’t like it, but he knows it’s coming because it’s that time of day. Seriously, I’ll never understand the concept of not wanting to go to sleep. It’s one of those things that just baffles me. Anyway, when his sister comes home, they both know it’s snack time and so on. The idea is that when one of them asks for something, I can give them a time landmark such as, “We’ll play in the yard when your sister gets home from school.” This way, my son understands that time is going to pass until his sister gets home, and then it will be time to play in the yard. Using events to describe time is much more effective than saying, “we’ll play later” because “later” could really mean anything.

Finally, you can incorporate a craft into teaching the concept of time. Make a large one-month calendar with your child. Draw it out together and write all the days of the week. Explain that each square represents a full day from day until night. Number your days and label any special days that are going to happen during that month along with any regular activities. You can draw pictures or use stickers to represent some of the special days. Once you have your calendar made, hang it up in a frequently visited location such as the breakfast nook or over your child’s bed. At the beginning or end of each day, have your child mark off the day that has just passed. Discuss the date, the things you did yesterday, and what is coming up tomorrow. Explain how the sun will come up for each new day and that the day will end when it gets dark outside. You can also use the calendar to talk about why some days seem longer or shorter than others when the sun comes up later or goes down earlier.

Speaking of time, I’ve run out for today, so that’s it for now. Thank you for listening.

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This is your friend the Mighty Mommy wishing you happy and fun parenting!