EasyRead Time Teacher (ertt) Wall Clock Review
Reviewed by Louise Totton
We are massive fans of EasyRead Time Teacher (ertt) watches in our house. My daughters each have an ertt watch which taught them to tell the time in a matter of minutes, and which they absolutely love to wear. The watches are fantastic quality and are available in many different combinations, so they are ideal for kids of literally almost any age. But telling the time isn’t just about checking your wrist – when you’re at home, be it cooking in the kitchen or chilling out watching TV in the lounge, for the most part, we do it by glancing at a clock rather than our wrist because it’s often easier when we’re busy.
And kids are no exception – they are as busy as the rest of us are with the important things in their life. They may be too busy because they are more concerned about playing with their unicorns or dressing up in their doctor set than they do about cleaning the house or cooking the dinner, but the principle is the same: if they’re not wearing their watch they haven’t got time to go look for it, and even if they are wearing it, if their little hands are busy, they won’t want to stop their game! So I was delighted to see that as well as their truly brilliant watches, ertt have also applied their fantastic time-telling method to wall clocks.
For those who don’t know, ertt time-telling products use their own method for teaching children to tell the time along with specially designed clock and watch faces. Parents (or children) can first of all choose how they want to tell the time. You choose between either the ‘traditional’ past and to method where 2:45 would be read as ‘quarter to three’, or a more modern 12/24 hour method where you would say ‘two forty-five’. We are pretty traditional in our house, so as with the watches that we have, with the wall clock, we chose the past and to version.
In addition to choosing your time telling method, the wall clock is available with either a rainbow face (multi-coloured hour numbers going round the clock face, with the past side of the clock coloured green and the to side coloured pink), or in red/blue which is slightly simpler looking with all of the past side coloured blue and the to side coloured red. Finally, the rainbow clock is also available in French and Spanish as well as English. We were sent the Rainbow version to try out and I was not disappointed.
The clock comes complete with a guide, to teach the child the ertt teaching system. Basically, the clock looks mostly like a standard clock, except the face is divided into two halves: the first half of the dial is colour-coded as green for ‘past the hour’, and the second half is purple and means ‘to the hour’. In addition to the normal twelve numbers on the dial, there is a second run of numbers around the very outer edge of the clock. On the first half, these count from 0-30, then on the second half, they count back the other way back to zero. This means that to tell the time, all the child has to do is read the ‘time sentence’. So in the example below, the child would read the number at the end of the long hand (9), say which side of the face the minutes hand is on (minutes to), then say the number that the little hand is pointing to (2), so they would say “nine minutes to two”.
We loved how lovely and clear the clock face is. It’s not remotely cluttered and there’s nothing there to distract or confuse a child early on in their time telling journey. The quality of the clock is fantastic and it feels robust and really looks the part. We initially put the clock on the wall of the kids’ playroom. This is because both kids were adamant that they didn’t want a clock on their bedroom wall because the previous clocks they have had in their rooms have driven them potty with the ticking! No such issues with this one though – it’s a tick-free clock and doesn’t disturb or annoy in any way at all! It wasn’t long before my youngest decided she wanted the clock on her bedroom wall, and that’s where it’s stayed!
Just like the watch, we were really impressed with the clock. The kids have been able to just glance up at the wall to tell the time, and having the clock either in their playroom or bedroom has given them both a little bit more independence – we have been working on me telling them what time their tea will be ready and asking them to make sure they are downstairs and ready to eat at 6pm. They have been relishing this little bit of extra ‘grown-upness’, and the fact that they are able to do this, I think, is testament to just how good the ertt system is; The kids don’t need any support or prompting whatsoever.
I can wholeheartedly recommend any of the ertt products to anyone, and we have loved trying out the wall clock. My eldest daughter has even asked for one for her bedroom wall too, and suggested putting it on her Christmas list. I honestly wouldn’t have thought that it would be the kind of thing that a child would actively request from Santa, but she has done and I’m delighted as I love buying useful and educational Christmas presents.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £24.95
For more information or to buy visit www.easyreadtimeteacher.com.
