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Teaching younger children in very short sessions.

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 7:39 pm
by SkipSandwich
I work as a tutor in a local after-school tutoring center called The Mathnasium. When the children are done with their tutoring session, we often play a board game of some sort with them while they wait for their ride. I told the managers of the place about
Go and they were very interested in it, so I made us a Go board that now sits by the chess board out front.

So I've been teaching children (All ages, really, but mainly 3rd-6th grade) how to play, and was wondering if anyone had any advice for how to best show them the game in the 5-10 minutes we usually have. We play on a 9x9 board, and I usually explain the rules, show them the ladder, and play a game or two commenting on a move every now and then. When they have already played, I'll usually introduce one new thought or show them a quick puzzle before our game. I'm still a DDK and relatively new to the game, but I think this is a great opportunity to introduce people ot the game, so any advice would be appreciated.

Re: Teaching younger children in very short sessions.

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 8:13 pm
by xed_over
with such a short introduction time, I suggest capture go, and maybe even start on 5x5 and 7x7 boards. If they catch on quickly, then move up to 9x9 and start playing regular go (some continue with capture 1, 3 or 5 on 9x9 before moving to regular go).

Re: Teaching younger children in very short sessions.

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 8:33 pm
by cdybeijing
Kids who like go tend to like "eating" things (read: killing groups) so capture go is ideal.

Also, not sure if the mathnasium has computers or not, but go child software was developed exactly for this purpose.

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 1:13 am
by EdLee
If you only have 5-10 minutes for absolute beginners, you can try:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3995&start=20
(Post #26; try the birthday cake analogy for little kids)

For non-beginners who already know the basic rules, you can try capture Go
as others have suggested -- the only caveat with capture Go is
there is no throw-in (for the obvious reason that the person who throws in
loses immediately because the stone is captured), so life-and-death is very different).

See which children discover eyes on their own, from capture Go. :)