Customer Reviews

Rock 'N Learn:Telling Time

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

While I can't stand the music and ultra-computerized voices, my two boys, ages four and six LOVE this video. It covers everything you could think of and more, from telling time by the hour to the quarter hour to five minutes to each minute. It covers digital clocks, stop watches, calendars, days, weeks, months, etc. It absolutely will teach your kids everything you'd like them to know about time.

I highly recommend starting with Blue's Clues Telling Time with Steve to start with and then move to this video. This one lacks Steve's wonderful humor and Blue's Clue's sweet charm and great music. But it does the job and the kids love it. So I just have to endure the synthesizers and bad rhyming!

You can preview excerpts from this DVD online at www.rocknlearn.com. Reading a review is one thing, but seeing it for yourself BEFORE you buy is even better. You can even let your child view the excerpts and see if he/she appears interested in the DVD, which is what I did.

This video is great for about age 6 (kindergarten) and up. It starts off with teaching about the clock and telling time to the hour and working up to a more difficult level. My 5 year old daughter enjoys it. It has kind of a cartoon clock singing and coocoo bird and they rap. It has cute songs for teaching the rote mechanics of telling time.

My 5 year old is watching "Telling Time" right now so I thought I might as well review it.

I bought "Telling Time" a few years back because I thought it might not be available later. When I was a kid I had a lot of trouble learning how to read the clock. I remember my teacher making me stay in class instead of going outside for recess because I was "slow" at acquiring this new skill. Fearing my daughter might have to miss recess too I wanted to help her all I could.

I've watched it now a number of times and I do like the content of it. It covers the material pretty well. I think if my daughter chooses to watch this often it could be very helpful along with mom's and her school's help.

I have a problem with the presentation. "Telling Time" runs at an incredibly fast pace and I wonder why. What's the hurry? It reminds me of when I was a kid watching "Sesame Street." It has the same quick cuts which was admittedly very entertaining and attention grabbing.

Are the Rock 'N Learn producers stuck back in the early 1970s? If you watch "Sesame Street" today you will find the pace much slower. There is a reason for this--the continual fast pace and quick cuts proved not to be good for children's brains and ability to concentrate when they needed to slow down. Learning usually involves more that just being entertained--it takes work. I wonder if the the producers of this DVD may not be keeping up with the scientific research regarding brain development and what kids need when they are learning a new skill. While their intentions may have been good this DVD would have been much better at a slower pace.

I, also, like another reviewer, find the noise (and the visuals) of the show hard to take. It's rather jarring but I have to admit it certainly keeps my daughter's attention and since we do have it I honestly will most likely encourage her to watch it. After all...I don't want her to miss recess!

I have never found an easier, more fun way to teach kids how to tell time. The best part is, IT WORKS!! My students love to sing along with the dvd and is the best thing I've ever found to teach kids how to tell time. I recommend it to anyone wanting to teach a child how to tell the time. Great!

My second grade students love this DVD. It teaches them in a fun and new way besides the traditional worksheet. I think all teachers should use Rock N Learn to enhance their classroom curriculum.

It's safe to say that most young children have a hazy understanding of the progression of time at best. Learning to distinguish the passing of time, and reading time are concepts that require consistent practice in order to sink in. Most children won't master the art of telling time as a result of a short lesson explaining the technique used to read an analog clock. Rock `N Learn's educational DVD Telling Time combines audio and visual learning in a fun format for children ages six and older to learn to tell time using both analog and digital clocks (basic recognition of numbers 1 to 60 is required for best results).

Computer animated host Timothy Time (an analog clock) and his friend Kuku (from a cuckoo clock), guide children through the largest bulk of the DVD - the parts focusing on telling time on a traditional analog clock face. Timothy introduces children to the concepts needed to tell time successfully in a logical order. Starting with the parts of a clock, he starts with the simplest time-telling tasks - telling time to the hour, telling time to the half hour - and moves on to the more complex tasks - telling time to the quarter hour, telling time to five minutes, and telling time to the exact minute. Plenty of practice is provided both in skip counting by fives, and in time-telling sessions. Because digital clocks are so simple to read, Timothy's friend Digi (a rapping digital clock) steps in to teach a brief segment on the straightforward method used to read digital clocks.

In addition to the disc containing a full-fledged course in telling time, a bonus lesson includes a wide variety of information that explains the larger sweep of time. This lesson includes an introduction to calendars, days of the week, months of the year, and the number of days in each month. A visual demonstration the progression from seconds to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days, and all the way up to a millennium brings the 35-minute DVD to a close.

Some of the animated representations of passing time in "AM and PM" are rather funny - a boy hoisting an entire turkey for his lunch, and a girl chomping on a whole loaf of bread for supper. Those familiar with Rock `N Learn's most recent releases will also find the animation a bit more stilted in this older title than in their newer discs. Educational facts featuring the root words of terms relating to time, sundials, atomic clocks, etc. are included between segments - my daughter loves them and always insists I read them aloud.

Some Rock `N Learn DVDs sometimes include full-fledged songs to help children remember facts. Telling Time instead uses a variety of music to back the rhythmic instructional speech of the hosts as they provide children with all of the teaching necessary to read time. I'm impressed by how Timothy Time relates the techniques used to tell time in rhythmic, rhyming verse that is easier for children to remember. One mnemonic song that summarizes the entire process is taught near the end of the DVD during the segment "Telling Time to the Exact Minute". Parents should watch along with their children so they can reinforce the concepts being presented by incorporating them in daily life.

I watch along with my six-year-old daughter and pause the DVD during the test section, reminding of the necessary steps (if required) to decipher the time. If I let the built in time runs he gets very anxious, so we just take it easy, when she's more advanced we can let it play through. She's making good progress, and with enough time she can consistently tell time in five-minute intervals after watching the disc occasionally over a three-week period. That might seem like awhile, but we've been very casual. She loves the Telling Time DVD so this learning process has been incredibly fun for her.

A video sample can be viewed online at the Rock `n Learn website.

Lessons Included:

1. Learning Time Today
2. Parts of an Analog clock
3. Telling Time to the Hour
4. AM and PM
5. Telling Time to the Half Hour
6. Telling Time to the Quarter Hour
7. Practice Counting by Fives
8. Telling Time to Five Minutes
9. Fun Review and Practice
10. Telling Time to the Exact Minute
11. Digital Clocks
12. Bonus: Calendars, Days of the Week, Months of the Year

It's a good time for such a delightful product. My grandson watches and watches and knows time perfectly.

My kids love this video. I bought it for my [...] to reinforce telling time she was learning in school. My 3 year loved the video and begs to watch it. He actually learned how to tell time by watching this video. Even my one year old loved it!

This DVD is an excellent learning tool for little minds. My kids are fully absorbed with it every time we turn it on. They are soon rocking and singing out the numbers and the times along with the characters. Well worth the purchase.