Counting Down
When the girls get to visit a friend they cannot wait. I tell them to see how many times they can count to sixty. It is a good exercise. They get practice counting and they learn how long a minute is.
I used to tell them fifteen minutes is the length of a short cartoon. An hour is the length of three cartoons plus the commercials. If they get impatient, I tell them to see how many books they can read. They do like to read. It is funny that I use TV to let them know the various lengths of time. I don’t watch much TV anymore. I prefer books. If you can read a few chapters of book, that is probably an hour. I get lost in them. Ten pages is about fifteen minutes.
It takes a while to get over previous habits. I still have them count down just for fun. They may get a little impatient. However, I want to teach them to live in the moment as well. I hope this helps another parent with children who don’t know how to countdown or want teach their children about time.