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Time

 
 Development matters Look, listen and note Effective practice Planning and resourcing
Birth-11 Months
 
  • Anticipate repeated sounds, sights and actions.
 
  • The sounds, sights and actions that interest young babies, for example, seeing a bottle, hearing bath water running.
 
  • Talk about what you are doing as you prepare a feed or a bath.
 
  • Provide pictures or photographs of things associated with regular routines.
8-20 Months
 
  • Get to know and enjoy daily routines, such as getting-up time, mealtimes, nappy time, and bedtime.
 
  • Children's anticipation of the events of the day.
 
  • Spend time looking at and talking about pictures of babies eating, sleeping, bathing and playing.
 
  • Ask parents about significant events in their babies' day and how these are talked about, for example, "boboes" for sleep or bedtime, "din-din" for dinner time.
16-26 Months
 
  • Associate a sequence of actions with daily routines.
  • Begin to understand that things might happen 'now'.
 
  • Actions that show young children understand the sequence of routines, for example, going to the cloakroom area when you say it is time to go outdoors.
 
  • Let young children know that you understand their routines. Talk them through the things you do as you get things ready.
 
  • Collect stories that focus on the sequence of routines, for example, getting dressed, asking "How do I put it on?".
22-36 Months
 
  • Recognise some special times in their lives and the lives of others.
  • Understand some talk about immediate past and future, for example, 'before', 'later' or 'soon'.
  • Anticipate specific time-based events such as mealtimes or home time.
 
  • How children talk about the special events they experience in the home and in the setting.
  • The ways children show their growing understanding of the past, for example, familiarity with places or people seen previously.
 
  • Make a diary of photographs to record a special occasion.
  • Use the language of time such as 'yesterday', 'tomorrow' or 'next week'.
 
  • Provide opportunities for children to work through routines in role-play, such as putting a 'baby' to bed.
30-50 Months
 
  • Remember and talk about significant events in their own experience.
  • Show interest in the lives of people familiar to them.
  • Talk about past and future events.
  • Develop an understanding of growth, decay and changes over time.
 
  • How children remember and recount a significant event, such as finding a dead jellyfish at the beach.
  • The comparisons children make about what they can do now with what they could do when they were younger.
 
  • Talk about and show interest in children's lives and experiences.
  • Use, and encourage children to use, the language of time in conversations, for example, 'past', 'now' and 'then'.
  • Encourage discussion of important events in the lives of people children know, such as their family.
  • Make books of events in settings, for example, summer fair, building a climbing frame, shopping expedition or learning about a festival.
  • Encourage role-play of events in children's lives.
  • Observe changes in the environment, for example, through the seasons or as a building extension is completed.
 
  • Plan time when children can discuss past events in their lives, such as what they did in the holidays or what happened when they went to have a splinter removed from their hand.
  • Ask parents to share photographs from home that show things such as a sunflower that their child took home from school in a pot, which has now grown taller than them.
  • Ensure the full participation of children learning English as an additional language by offering additional visual support and encouraging children to use their home language.
40-60+ Months
 
  • Begin to differentiate between past and present.
  • Use time-related words in conversation.
  • Understand about the seasons of the year and their regularity.
  • Make short-term future plans.
  • Find out about past and present events in their own lives, and in those of their families and other people they know.
 
  • How children refer to past events, such as how long ago it was since they visited the swimming baths.
  • How a child compares experiences in their own life with those of others, for example, comparing their own play and playthings with their grandparents' experiences of play and playthings.
 
  • Sequence events, for example, photographs of children from birth.
  • Use stories that introduce a sense of time and people from the past.
  • Encourage children to ask questions about events in each other's lives in discussions, and explore these experiences in role-play.
  • Compare artefacts of different times, for example, garden and household tools.
  • Make the most of opportunities to value children's histories. Involve families in sharing memories. This might include celebration of a travelling background or of African-Caribbean roots.
 
  • Provide long-term growing projects, for example, sowing seeds or looking after chicken eggs.
  • Provide reference material for children to use, for example, comparing old and recent photographs.
  • Draw on the local community to support projects about the seasons. Tap into knowledge and expertise of local farmers, gardeners, allotment holders and so on.