Over the weekend, we sprung ahead and turned the clocks forward one hour. The concept of Daylight Savings Time, or reading clocks in general, may be difficult for kids to understand, but Zingo! Time-telling, from ThinkFun, gives kids a fun way to learn to read the clock.
Designed for kids in kindergarten through third grade, this game teaches two to six players how to read the hour and minute hands on an analog clock and make the translation to digital time. The Zingo Zinger contains hour tiles and minute tiles, and kids must slide the Zinger forward to release a pair of tiles. Then, kids try to match the hour and minute tiles revealed by the Zinger to a time on their playing card.
There are two levels of game play, beginner and advanced, that kids can choose from. The green side of the playing card features an analog clock and the corresponding digital time, so kids simply need to match the tiles. On the red side, only the analog time is shown, so kids must read the clock and correctly choose the tiles to show the time digitally.
In addition to time-telling, this Zingo! game also builds matching, concentration, memory, and turn-taking skills. Not to mention—revealing the tiles using the Zinger is fun and satisfying for kids (and adults!).