Read the word problem, quietly, to yourself to get an idea of what it is saying, and asking your child to do. Ask her what part of the problem is not understood. Have your child read the problem aloud to you to see if she is possibly misreading it. Read the problem aloud to her if this is the case.
Determine whether addition or subtraction is needed. Add when the problem is asking how much time passed and subtract when the problem asks how much time is left. Talk to your child about time passing, how the hands of the clock represent hours and minutes. Explain that there are 60 minutes in one hour, and that sometimes when you work with time you count minutes by fives. Point to each number around the clock counting in fives to show an hour going by.
Set the hands of the paper example clock on the beginning time in the word problem. Let your child move the hands of the clock either forward or backward to the second time listed in the problem to show the time passing on the clock. Count the hours and minutes that went by for time word problems where time is advancing, or problems where the starting time of an event needs to be found. Count using fives for minutes.
Add all amounts of time together using the normal rules of addition, not by counting with fives, to get a total amount of time spent if, for example, snack time is 30 minutes long and you want to calculate the number of total hours spent on snack time if there have been 100 snack days.
Insist on active participation as you explain and demonstrate, having your child move the hands on the clock, and do the counting. Ask him to read the problem again, and to find the answer on his own, and then offer the pencil so the question can be answered independently.