It's been a Minute! 60 seconds! Why is Time so Hard?

 It's freezing in South Texas.   I am not enjoying the weather.  So to take my mind off of all things frigid I have been considering why do kids struggle so much with telling time?   Short hand and long hand aside, because honestly who uses anything but digital clocks anymore, kids still struggle to manipulate units of time.   I still think it comes back to numeracy.  Increments of 5s, 10s, even 1s.  Students lack the flexibility to manipulate numbers both up and down a number line.  Forward and backward if you will.  How do we remedy that?  I was listening to a great podcaster, Pam Harris of Math is Figureoutable (i'll link it below), but she and her partner in crime Kim were talking about using the game "I have, You Need"  to help with increments of time.  I have used this game to help students solidify their knowledge of number pairs that make ten and 20, etc. But I never considered going any further with that.  They shared that what if we used I have, you need to build fluency within first 15 then 30 then 45, then 60.  Our students would then have the capacity to manipulate numbers within 60 to effectivity add and subtract elapsed time.  It could be a short game in the the hallway as your waiting in line for the bathroom.  I have 10, you need 50 (for 60);  I have 35 you need 25.  I have 43 you need 17.  What do you think?  Would this be something you would be willing to try with your students?

If you haven't listened to her stuff check her out here.