Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 A learning toy that grows as your child does! May 4, 2005
KSL (Seminole, Fl United States)
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
My daughter received her 1st Melissa & Doug wooden toy for Christmas and boy do we love the ones we have purchase since. Any way, this clock is made of wood. The clock has 12 brightly colored shapes for each number of the clock that your child can take out and then place back into their own place. The hands of the clock are 2 different colors - the minute hand is marked minute and is red and the hour hand is blue. Printed under the hands of the clock have the numbers so your child can find what numbers go where on the clock. Also printed are the seconds and minutes in the 5 minute pie shaped increments that are also different colors. Also included are how to tell time from Quarter Past, Half Past, Quarter til and O'clock.
I love good toys that actually grow with your child and being that it's made of wood, it should last quite nicely for generations! For teaching time, I think this is terrific! Defiantely a 10 Stars!
 Inaccurate and Poor Teaching Design January 28, 2006
Math Mom (Arlington, VA)
19 out of 42 found this review helpful
As a Math teacher and mother of two girls, I was horrified that my four year old within minutes of playing with this item, noticed that the pentagon shape was marked "6" and the hexagon shape was marked "5". I called the company immediately and was informed that they receive this complaint ALL THE TIME but the design is intentional. If the hexagon were correctly marked "6", I was told, kids could then place the shape upside down and it then would read a "9". However, the clock face provides the correct number printed above the cutouts so kids could verify their work that way. Moreover, that would not be the first time that kids confuse "6" and "9", which is what learning is all about. Children would be far better served if Melissa and Doug would skip the "hour numbering to geometric side" concept, which they don't carry thru with all the numbers anyhow, and just design a clock to teach time and not complicate it with an inaccurate secondary purpose. I shudder to think how many kids will mislearn pentagon and hexagon thanks to this clock.
It's About Time.... July 25, 2005
Freakin' Fabulous (God's Country)
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
Can't say enough about Melissa and Doug toys! Very durable and the many ones that we own are highly educational.
My twin 4yr old boys are not only experts with their colors but have great knowledge of different shapes outside of the typical square, circle, triangle, etc. This is definitely a toy that will grow with them as they continue to advance into learning to tell time. Our 2yr old daughter has picked up on this toy and has mastered the act of placing the correct shape into the right spot months ago.
We're in the process of collecting these great toys that seem to stand the test of time. As a mother I love these wooden toys just because they last longer than the typical plastic toys made these days.
Awesome job Melissa and Doug!
 Fun and colorful but INACCURATE October 19, 2005
Emily T. Cookson (Mill Valley, CA USA)
12 out of 18 found this review helpful
I agree with previous reviewer that this toy is fun and colorful, my 2-year-old loves it, but it makes me insane that the number 6 block is a pentagon and the number 5 block is a hexagon! Seriously, what would it have taken to just reverse those 2?
This is also the case with their peg shapes -- but in that case, there are 4 blue pentagons on the number 4 peg and 5 red squares on the number 5 peg. They obviously went to some trouble to design these games and they're durable, appealing, etc. but HONESTLY, that's pretty sloppy user interface design!
I, too, have written to Melissa & Doug to provide feedback, without response. That said, my son who turned 2 last week has now learned the words "pinkagon", "eightagon", and "crapazoid", thanks to this toy. :-)
New and improved! Shapes are changed on new ones! August 11, 2007
Love Being A Grandma
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I recently bought this toy for grandchildren, ages 3 and younger, for when they are at my house.
Previous reviews complained that the shapes of numbers 5 and 6 might be confusing, and so I avoided this purchase for a while. BUT, the one I bought is NEW and the 5 is the pentagon shape and the 6 is the hexagon shape, so that is no longer a concern. Look at the picture of the product above - today the picture I am looking at on this page shows the correct shapes for 5 and 6, so it appears that Melissa and Doug have corrected this problem! If you were to purchase an older or used version of this clock be aware that it may have the wrong shapes - but the newest ones I would presume are correct. Mine is.
I rate this toy 5-star. It is certainly not a bells and whistles toy, no noises, no lights. Thank goodness. But I think there is a lot of value in this toy.
This is a concrete hands-on way for children to begin learning about not only clocks, but also shapes, order of numbers, and more, depending on the age and stage of the child. It is a toy that can grow with a child, one to be taken out and used for a while, then as interest wanes, put it away for a while, and then bring it out later for a child to explore at a different stage.
Please keep in mind that children will probably get more value out of any toy, where a parent, grandparent, teacher, sibling, babysitter, etc. first sits down and talks with the child about the toy and maybe models how the child might use the toy. Then expect them to try using it for different things - like stacking, or pretending that one piece or another is food for a doll, or whatever - and that is OK too - keep in mind kids learn in different ways than we might expect. (Of course keep an eye on younger children to make sure they are not putting pieces in their own mouths, pretending it is their own food!)
There is obvious shape-matching value for younger children.
A child might take the shapes outside of the "puzzle" and line them up - in numeric order, or just to compare shapes, colors or whatever.
With an older child, you might introduce time-telling vocabulary, in relationship to where the clock hands are.
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