Tell the Time Games for Kids🕒Tell the Time

How to play Tell the Time

An analogue clock shows a time, and your child taps the matching digital time from four choices. Each round is 10 clocks. Pick one of five levels before you start: O'clock, Half past, Quarters, Five minutes or Any minute, so you can begin with whole hours and step up when your child is ready.

A correct answer earns 10 points, plus up to 5 more for answering quickly. There's no timer and no way to fail. After a wrong answer the hands change colour and sweep round from 12 to the real time while the right answer is shown. The wrong choices are based on common mistakes, such as swapping the hands or reading the hour one out.

Tips

• ▸Remind your child that the short hand shows the hour and the long hand the minutes. The start screen says the same.
• ▸At half past three the short hand sits halfway between 3 and 4, so 4:30 is an easy mistake. The hour is the number the short hand has just passed.
• ▸On Five minutes, count round from the 12 in fives: the long hand on the 7 means 35 minutes past.
• ▸The speed bonus is only a few points, so let your child take their time.

Tell the Time FAQ

What does each level cover?

O'clock uses whole hours like 3:00. Half past adds :30, Quarters adds :15 and :45, Five minutes uses steps like 10:35, and Any minute can show any time, such as 7:52.

Does it use the 12-hour or 24-hour clock?

The 12-hour clock. Answers are digital times from 1:00 to 12:59, with no am or pm.

Does the hour hand move like a real clock?

Yes. It moves gradually between the numbers as the minutes pass, so at quarter to five it points most of the way from 4 to 5.