It is that lull, when all the big tasks for the day have been done and only a few small jobs need completing, before the office can be closed for the night. Granma T and Mai Ling are finshing off the day's work and preparing for tomorrow over a warming cup of tea.

GT: It is a funny time of the year, this. Don't you think?

ML: Uum, the festivities are over sadly, the New Year has only just begun and there appears nothing to look forward to.

GT: You are right, but the very routine of work and living will make time pass. Soon the better weather will be with us. In no time at all we shall be boating on the lake again, walking in parks and then there are all the birthday parties to look forward to.

ML: After all the exciting celebrations of the New Year, time appears to have slowed down and getting back into the routine has been harder for me this year. I'm not sure why.

GT: Getting older my dear. Though at my time of life - the days go rushing by, I hardly have time to notice them. All the work we do seems to speed up my life.

ML: When I was younger, time seemed to drag. School days felt never ending while the weekends just shot by when all we did was enjoy ourselves.

GT: It is not just in childhood that time feels different. Even though I am much older than you Mai Ling, we both have so much to do each day - many things we like doing when time is forgotten. While when we have other chores we would gladly postpone, the time passes so slowly - it hangs around.

ML: Funnily, our party now feels an age away. When was it - January 24th? 25th? While strangely, it seems but a blink of the eye away since I opened up the office this morning. A week can pass by so quickly as most of this day has done, while presently, with all the main jobs being finished, time appears to be dragging.

GT: Sorting out the time sheets for the workmen is always a chore for me. I suppose it is because we have to put it off until the very last thing. Perhaps, because by then I am so tired, that is why this necessary task seems to take forever to do and always feels like going uphill.

ML: Yes, but after a long soak in a warm bath and a nice supper the time up till bedtime just shoots by.

GT: Funny we should be talking like this you know. At this time of the year most people are reminded that with one year out another beginning that 'tempus fugit'.

ML: Whatever does that phrase mean? I know where you saw those words - on that old grandfather clock that we had to move a couple of days ago.

GT: Now, I am surprised that you did not look it up on the Internet. Not like you - you must have been too busy with other things.

ML: Oh do tell me! I haven't time to get down the encyclopedias, there is only a few minutes left to get your letters in the post....

GT: You do the post and in the meantime....

You might like to:

1. Complete the silhouettes of the candle and the sundial - two different ways of measuring time.
2. Work with a friend - one of you try to estimate a minute before standing up while the other carefully times a minute. By how many seconds were you out? Repeat the experiment does your ability to estimate improve.
3. List words associated with time or measuring time.
4. Search the Internet or available encyclopedias to find other different types of instruments for keeping time.
5. List all the ways in which you have had to tell the time, estimate time or use time during today or yesterday.
6. Using a 3 minute and 5 minute timer show how you could accurately time 11 and 18 minute experiments.

Parents you might like to:

1. Explain the meaning of digital and analogue time by looking at rail and / or bus timetables
2. Find all the different time pieces you have at home. Discuss how accurate they are. Or how accurate some time pieces need to be.
3. Talk about 'the good times'. Possibly comparing school times with hometime.
4. Complete and research the saying: 30 days hath September,......
5. Decide how to calibrate candles into suitable units of time.

Teachers you might like to:

1. Explore palindromic time e.g. 12:21 within a 24 hour period
2. Discuss the notion of subjective time - i.e. 5 minutes spent doing the washing up as opposed to 5 minutes spent watching TV or eating ice-cream.
3. Consider all the diffrent things that children can complete in 30 seconds or one minute.
4. Illustrate the different time zones across the world and talk about the International Dateline.
5. Develop the theme of time in poetry.