Reinforce children's dawning sense of time with ideas to organise their day and reflect on their lives, with activities and resources suggested by Diana Lawton.

Time is a complex concept to grasp, even for adults. Through a day, time can seem to drag, or, conversely, the hours can 'fly by'. However, although adults do sometimes view time in this subjective way, we are able to compare this to objective measures, such as the movement of clock hands. Young children don't yet have this ability.

Time really does 'fly' or 'drag' for children, depending on what they are doing. For very young children, time is a one-dimensional concept. Things exist only now. At about the age of three, children are just beginning to view time as a continuum - to understand that things existed before now and things will exist after now.

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