An idea came to my mind as I read the thread about selecting a suitable watch for a child.  I would like to share how I taught my boys how to read the time from the time they were as young as 6 years of age.

I first bought a ‘teaching clock’ from Popular and introduced the hour and minute hands to my boys when they turned 6.  Once they were familiar with what each hand does, I proceeded to stick that ‘teaching clock’ onto my kitchen wall.

Then whenever I did my chores in the kitchen, I would get them to "play with me", as in, I would test them to ask them to use the ‘teaching clock’ to show me first the ‘o’clock’, followed by half past, followed by quarter past, etc before I ‘graduated’ to more ‘complicated time’ like 5.05pm, 7.35am etc, meaning start off with the easier to read time like ‘o’clock’ first before proceeding to the more complicated time.

Then when the June holidays came, I bought them an analog watch and they were allowed to wear it at home everyday of the school holiday.  My goodness, that was a ‘treat to a 6-year old’.  They thought it was so ‘adult-like’ to be allowed to wear a real watch! 

And what did I do on my part with them wearing the watch everyday during the school holidays?  I would play along with them, getting them to tell me the time at selected intervals and by the time the June holidays were over, they were ready to wear their watches to school, no, not as a show-off, useless thing on their wrist, but a real watch where they could tell the time.

And by the time both boys entered Primary School, they had no problem reading their timetable etc and it was really a good thing as they were no longer ‘blindly’ following the timetable, not knowing what time is the next lesson etc.

Later on, I proceeded to teach them about the 12/24 hour clock when they were ready.

So here’s many personal experience.  Those with pre-school kids may want to give this method a try.