The grade three class will be working on telling time and the teacher suggested we ask the kids questions like, what time is it right now? What time will it be in ten minutes? What time was it ½ hour ago? I figured this would be a simple three minute drill.

For the purposes of retelling my children’s answers, I am opting to use Child #1–#3 for anonymity.

Q. 1 What time is it?

Child 1: Eleventy-fifty?

Child 2: Sixty-fifteen?

Child 3: Red.

Q. 2 If it’s ten minutes to six, what time will it be in ten minutes?

Child 1: 10:16?

Child 2: Eleventy-fifty? (please refer to Q.1 answer)

Child 3: Leave the door!

Q. 3: What is another way to say “It’s quarter after five?”

Child 1: Quarter after six?

Child 2: Quarter after seven?

Child 3: one, two, fee, five, sefen, twelve, twenty….

Q. 4: When I say something is in half an hour, how many minutes is that?

Child 1: 4 o’clock?

Child 2: Eleven-ty…..fif (me shaking my head no)

Child 3: Shake it up.

Here it was five minutes shy of eleventy-fifty and I was beat. All this time my kids have been wearing bracelets with a series of numbers ticking away in a circular pattern around a picture of a kitten and had no idea what time it was.