HoneyBadger - these are great ideas. When my dd was in preschool, her teacher suggested similar exercises to develop sense of time. One was to point out how long it takes to drive from point a to point b. I think I need to start doing this again as she is driving, working and always late because she just doesn't allow enough time......
Yes -- that's the "lagging skills" theory again. My son had HORRIBLE sense of time and schedule when he was a preschooler -- so much so that I never did any of those things with him then, because it just wouldn't have made any sense to him.
But now that he is 9, and shoudln't really need it, I need to just go back to do them with him.
I've been working with him (and hjis younger sister) for the past week and am REALLY encouraged. We just went on a long car trip and as I was driving 60 miles per hour almost exactly, I taught the kids (who were begging from the back seat every few minutes "How much longer ad nauseum) to measure our rate of time by watching the mile markers go by.
AFter a while I had the kids see how long they could hold their breath. My older child was able to hold his breath for a full milk (about 1 minute at the speed we were traveling).
Finally I had him close his eyes and try to guess when a minute/mile went by. He thought a minute was up after 20 seconds the first time! He was really surprised and so was I. We did this a few more times, and after using a few different strategies, he managed to get to a minute.
We're going to spend the rest of this vacation learning to estimate 5 minutes and 15 minutes.
