Games / Learning Games / Clock Shop / Guide
Clock Shop
Tuck the mouse fixes clocks for a line of animal customers, and every fix is a time question. Your child reads clocks, drags the hands to set them, and works up from o'clock to the exact minute and how long things take.
What your child learns
Clock Shop follows the order most schools teach time in. Each of the eight levels names its skill and grade, so you can see where your child is:
| Level | Skill | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| 1. O'clock | Times on the hour | Grade 1 |
| 2. Half past | Half hours, mixed with o'clock | Grade 1 |
| 3. Quarter past and to | Quarter hours | Grade 2 |
| 4. Five minutes | Count by fives around the clock | Grade 2 |
| 5. Every minute | Time to the exact minute | Grade 3 |
| 6. a.m. and p.m. | Morning or evening | Grade 2 |
| 7. How long? Part 1 | Elapsed time from whole and half hours | Grade 3 |
| 8. How long? Part 2 | Elapsed time from any time | Grade 3 |
Along the way your child learns the words grown-ups actually use (half past 3, quarter to 4) and matches an analog clock to a digital time. The clock behaves like a real one. When the long hand moves, the short hand creeps along too, so at 3:30 the hour hand sits halfway between the 3 and the 4.
How it works
Tap Play and the first customer walks up. There are two kinds of question. In a read question your child looks at the clock and taps the matching time. In a set question a customer asks for a time, like half past 7, and your child drags the hands and taps Done. On a computer the arrow keys move the minute hand too.
Every prompt is read aloud, with a big speaker button to hear it again, and it's also written on screen, so the game still works with the voice turned off. A round is six clocks and takes two or three minutes. In the a.m. and p.m. level, scenes like breakfast or bedtime help your child decide.
The elapsed time levels ask questions like "It is 3:30. The cake bakes for 45 minutes. Set the clock to when it ends." A shaded wedge fills in as the minute hand moves, and in Part 1 a badge counts the time added so far.
Levels and how it adapts
The age buttons on the title screen pick a starting point: 4 to 6 starts at o'clock, 6 to 8 at half past, and 8 to 11 at five minutes. Finishing a level opens the next one, and you can jump to any open level from the Levels screen.
Behind the scenes the game keeps track of which times your child misses and brings those back more often. A wrong answer never ends anything. First the game points at the problem: it lights up the hand that's off and says something like "Look at the short hour hand. It is a little past the 4." For minutes it counts around the dial by fives. After a second miss Tuck sweeps the hands to the right time and explains it step by step, then a similar clock comes back a couple of turns later, flipped from reading to setting or the other way around. After Tuck shows an answer, the next new clock is a little easier, too.
Stars come from first try answers: all six right on the first try earns 3 stars. Stars add new clocks to the shop wall, twelve in all, from an alarm clock and a cuckoo clock up to a grandfather clock and a golden gear clock. Kids also earn stickers for the Sticker Book shared by all our learning games. There are no timers and nothing to lose.
Today's challenge
Today's challenge is eight clocks, the same for every player that day, mixed to suit the age setting. Finishing it keeps a day streak going and earns a sticker once a day.
Tips for grown-ups
- At breakfast, ask: where is the short hand? Where is the long hand? What time is it?
- When you set a kitchen timer, ask your child to guess what time it will be when it rings. That's elapsed time in real life.
- Go on a clock hunt around the house. Which clocks have hands and which show numbers? Do they agree?
- Talk about your day with a.m. and p.m.: we wake up at 7 a.m. and eat dinner at 6 p.m.
Privacy and safety
Clock Shop has no ads, no accounts, no chat and no leaderboards, and it doesn't track your child. Nothing is sent anywhere. Progress, stars and stickers are saved only in the browser on your device. The only links lead to our other learning games and the Sticker Book. It's free and plays in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to download.
Questions
What age is Clock Shop for?
It's built for ages 6 to 9, which covers telling time in Grades 1 to 3. The first two levels work well for 4 and 5 year olds who already know their numbers to 12.
How do kids learn to tell time on an analog clock?
Most kids start with o'clock, then half past, quarter hours, counting by fives, and finally single minutes. Clock Shop follows that order and shows why the hour hand sits between numbers.
Does it teach elapsed time?
Yes. Levels 7 and 8 ask how long things take, like a cake that bakes for 45 minutes, and your child sets the clock to the end time.
Can my child play without reading?
Mostly, yes. Every question is read aloud and can be replayed with the speaker button. The answers are times on buttons or hands on a clock.
Is Clock Shop free?
Yes, it's free with no ads and no in-app purchases.
