TIME OUTSIDE OF TIME - LEARNING TIME as a preschooler

FACE

FACE OF A CLOCK: TIME

I had the unique experience of having TWO ADULTS teach me how to tell time EACH AT TWO DIFFERENT TIMES.

From a maternal grandmother born in 1897 I associate a CLOCK with THE TIME when I stopped playing and had to CONCENTRATE to learned ABOUT my ABC's symbolized only by a DICTIONARY.

PRESCHOOL LEARNING OF THE WORD NUMBERS THAT WERE ALSO ON THE FACE OF A CLOCK AND USED IN SCHOOL - LEARNING THE TWO DIFFERENT WAYS YOU WILL BE USING THEM DARN NUMBERS
*Physics was my favorite subject in High School

From my fraternal grandfather born in 1875 I associate a CLOCK with learning my 123's. Looking back as an adult these SPECIAL TIMES TO LEARN ABOUT THEM DARN NUMBERS was always started with being able to hold his pocket watch on a long chain that he would let me hold. He told me stories about working and getting that watch as a PRESENT after years. He said there was 'no darn way a little kid like me could under what a year was'. (Darn was a word I learned from Gramps that had REAL MEANING as a small child).

While I got to hold this SPECIAL PRESENT BELONG TO GRAMPS he would tell me that we 'had to get serious and do some learning' AND the watch was put back into his pocket and he would then hand me change
such as pennies, nickles and dimes. I associated 123's with MONEY before I entered kindergarten. I learned that the WORDS: ONE TWO THREE, ETC. WAS ASSOCIATED WITH MONEY. He would set a coin and it was like a guessing game but it was told me that this was LEARNING and when we were done LEARNING he would put that money back into his pocket and then I could 'go off and play like a kid, that's what kids are suppose to do.

He would tell me "don't you start worrying about how to use your darn crayons to try to draw those darn numbers, it's hard enough to understand them darn numbers NUMBERS. Those always give kids a problem in school trying to figure them out. He told me to hold my face and make a CONFUSED expression to let me know if I WAS CONFUSED. He would tell me there was no 'darn way' that a big person KNOWS when a little person can't figure something out. That was the way I could TALK TO HIM to let him know if those 'darn numbers weren't making any sense'.

As an adult I can describe this method as learning to associate the sounds of HIS SPEAKING THE WORD ONE, TWO, THREE to be associated with SOMETHING. He would repeatedly tell me 'don't you start worrying about them darn numbers, it's hard'. He told me don't you start worrying about trying to MEMORIZE those darn numbers, you will learn to do that when you get older and go to school. That's what those darn school do, teach you to LEARN about how to USE THOSE NUMBERS.

Gramps used the expression "those fancy numbers that you use if you want to build a house, but I doubt if you will grow up to be house building - those are fancy ways to use numbers". He would talk about it as I got to hold the money. I entered school seeing a difference between the words ARITHMETIC and MATHEMATICS. Took a long time for me to figure that one out. Today I merely say ARITHMETIC is the fine art of money changing and MATHEMATICS is a science. Wish I could have said that at the age of 20!!

It is is no wonder that I entered adulthood FEELING LIKE I WAS STRANGE. And, if I can put blame on anything is the BLASTED FACE OF A CLOCK and the ENGLISH WORD FACE.