Reading an analog clock is still on the test — and it is one of the few school skills a phone has quietly stopped teaching. Telling Time is a hands-on clock your child can actually touch: they drag the hands, set the time, and watch the hour hand slide across the dial the way a real clock's does.
It replaces telling-time worksheets. Instead of circling an answer on a printout, your child moves real clock hands and finds out straight away whether the time they made is the time that was asked for.
⏰ BUILT IN THE ORDER IT IS TAUGHT
Skills arrive the way a classroom introduces them, so nobody is dropped in at the deep end:
• O'clock — the hour, on the dot
• Half past — half past the hour
• Quarter past and quarter to
• Five minutes — counting round the dial in fives
• To the exact minute
• Elapsed time — "it starts at 2:15 and takes 1 hour 20 minutes; when does it end?"
• Digital and analog — matching the two kinds of clock to each other
👆 TWO WAYS TO PRACTICE
SET THE CLOCK — "Make it 3:30." Your child drags the minute hand around the dial and the hour hand follows along, exactly as the gears would. The clock snaps to whichever step that skill is working on, so a wobbly thumb still lands on the answer.
READ THE CLOCK — a clock face appears and your child picks the right time from four choices. The wrong choices are the mistakes children actually make: swapping the two hands, landing five minutes out, or being half an hour off.
🕰️ A REAL CLOCK, NOT A CARTOON ONE
The hour hand moves continuously. At half past three it sits exactly halfway between the 3 and the 4, because that is where a real clock puts it. Plenty of apps park it on the 3 instead, which quietly teaches a child to read a clock face they will never meet in life. The hands are told apart by shape as well as by color — short and thick for the hour, long and thin for the minutes — so the difference survives on any screen and for any pair of eyes.
📝 A MIXED QUIZ WHEN THEY ARE READY
Ten questions drawn from every skill they have practiced, scored at the end. A quick way to find out what has actually stuck before test day.
📊 SEE WHAT IS STICKING
A progress report shows how they are doing on each skill, how many rounds they have finished, and their practice streak. Add a profile for each child and everyone's progress is kept separately, so a younger sibling starting at o'clock never disturbs an older one working to the minute.
🎨 MAKE IT THEIRS
Choose from a range of clock faces and colors.
🎒 FOR KINDERGARTEN THROUGH THIRD GRADE
Suitable for kindergarten, first grade, second grade and third grade — and for any older learner who wants the analog clock to finally click. Homeschoolers, teachers and tutors use it the same way: hand over the phone, let them move the hands, and watch where they hesitate.
🔒 PRIVATE BY DESIGN
• No ads
• No account and no sign-up
• Works offline, anywhere — on the bus, in the car, in a waiting room
• Nothing your child does is uploaded; their progress stays on the device
• A backup file you own, so a new phone does not mean starting over
🔔 AN OPTIONAL NUDGE
A single once-a-day reminder can prompt a short practice session. You choose the time, it is asked for only after their first finished round, and you can turn it off whenever you like.
Download Telling Time and let them learn the clock by moving the hands.
Telling time for kids — drag the clock hands, practice hours & elapsed time.