Skill shelf · weight, time and growth · 3 activities
Measuring, Time and Money
Three activities where the measuring is done by hand, by clock face, and by a strip of paper cut to the height of a bean plant.
Measuring starts as comparison, long before a unit is attached to it. Heavier. Later. Taller than yesterday. The first of these is ten pots that look identical and weigh five different amounts, so the only instrument in the room is two hands, and the answer cannot be read off anything.
Time is the hard one, because there is nothing to pick up. The clock activity gets round that by making every card an event out of the child's own Tuesday. Half past seven means nothing until half past seven is porridge. Hours go in red inside the plate and minutes in blue around the rim, so it stays visible that the two hands are reading two different scales.
The bean runs longest: five minutes a morning for weeks, with a paper strip cut to the height each day. Glued in a row, the strips become a chart nobody had to draw. It sits on Nature and Close Observation too, and it is the one here that turns into a daily habit rather than a sitting.
The three
Youngest first, with the age it suits, the setup time and the play time on every line.
- Weighted Pod Sorting Your child picks up two pots that look exactly alike, decides which one is heavier, and keeps going until all ten are in pairs. 15 min, once · 5 to 10 min · household only
- Clock Face and Hands Match Your child sets the hands on a paper clock to match a card, and the card says what happens at that time in his own day. 15 min, once · 10 to 20 min · household only
- Plant Care and Growth Measuring Your child grows a bean from a dried one in the cupboard, waters it on a schedule that is hers, and cuts a paper strip to its height every morning. 2 min · 5 min a day, for weeks · household only
All three come out of the kitchen: ten identical pots, a paper plate and a split pin, a jam jar and a handful of dried beans.