The Best Watches (and Other Cool Tools!) to Help Kids Tell Time

If your kiddo regularly bombards you with questions like, “What time is it?” “When is my friend going to get here?” or “How long until dinner?” they might be ready to learn how to tell time for themselves. Kids typically start learning to tell time around the ages of 5 or 6, but it can vary depending on the child. A child’s understanding of time may start with a rudimentary grasp of times of day, like morning, midday, and night, which is then refined with more detail, including hours and minutes. 

Learning to tell time empowers children and gives them a boost of confidence, as they are able to understand daily routines and make choices about how to use their time. Here are some tools to help kids on their time-telling journey.

This was one of my favorite tools for teaching my kids about time when they were preschoolers. The shape-sorting puzzle/clock helps kids develop an understanding of numbers and the basics of how a clock is organized. Kids can move the labeled hour and minute hands to explore and learn, and the color-matching blocks allow them to strengthen their color recognition and shape sorting skills at the same time.

If you know a kiddo who is curious about all things time, this interactive teaching clock would be the perfect gift. Kids can move the clock hands, and the electronic clock will tell them the time verbally and on the digital display, making it a great tool for independent learning. In its quiz mode, the clock challenges kids to find the right time on the clock face, making a fun learning game. It can also be used as a bedside clock with a built-in nightlight.

This analog wall clock has a kid-friendly, easy-to-read design that breaks down the hours, minutes, and quarters on the clock face and labels the minute and hour hands. The bright colors are engaging and helpful as kids start learning to tell time on their own. Plus, it’s non-ticking, which means it won’t be a distraction.

Take the color-coded features of the analog wall clock above and put it in a kid-friendly wristwatch, and you’ve got this time teaching watch that’s perfect for kids who are just starting to understand the basics of telling time. Available in shark, butterfly, or dinosaur designs, these watches are super cute and shock- and water-resistant (although they can’t be worn while swimming), which makes them a good choice for 5- to 7-year-olds

This Swiss watch is a gorgeous Swatch-style starter watch for time-telling fashionistas. The clockface is a little more subdued than some of the other options out there, which makes it a good choice for kids who are more confident in their time-telling abilities. The silicone strap is easy for kids to put on and remove themselves, which gives them even more independence, but what I love most about this watch is that it comes with a paper game and a downloadable app that helps kids learn to tell time in an engaging, fun way.

Learning to tell time on an analog clock is an essential skill that helps kids conceptualize time itself, but, as we know as smart-watch-wearing adults, a watch can do so much more than help us tell time. When your kiddo is ready for a smart watch that can help them stay safe and connected to caregivers, the Xplora X6Play is a great choice for kids 6 and up. My 7-year-old adores wearing her watch and uses it both to tell time on its analog and digital faces and to communicate with me when she’s enjoying a little autonomy around the neighborhood, at the farmers market, or at the pool.