Best method for teaching young kids?

[Cynthia Moore]

Is there a method that would be appropriate for young children (6-8)?

A few days ago, one of my grandkids (age 6) got a cube (3x3) and wanted to solve it. We fiddled with it some not really getting anywhere. So I went online to see if I could find any clues. Wow! There are tons of tutorials. I had no idea so much time and energy had been devoted to this puzzle.

I checked out several tutorials and decided to use this one by Vince Rocca:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvhKNXHQqyM

It says it has 5 steps, but it's really 7. It's pretty good for the first 3-4 steps, but then it gets very complicated. It also has a few bugs. It's way too complicated for a young child.

Then I found this forum. I read the Beginner's Guide thread in the How-To & Guides section. Very informative. I now understand that there are several major methods, each with a very different approach.

Can anyone comment on whether any of these would be better for young kids or is this puzzle just too hard?

This would not be to break any speed records or participate in competitions. It would just be to help a child understand the puzzle and have some fun.

I'd especially like a step-by-step tutorial that explains what each algorithm is doing. The Rocca tutorial is pretty good at that.

Thanks

 

[Lucas Garron]

Here's the "cheat sheet" I give to kids when I teach them to solve a cube: http://www.garron.us/cube/solution.pdf

It's not a standalone solution, but it should make sense to an experienced cuber. It tries to take the things that a normal speedcuber would do, and simplifies it to the minimum number of necessary parts: Everything is broken down into triggers and U-pulls, and the direction always corresponds to what side of the cube you'e working on. (The only exception is the beginning of the corner swap.)

I usually teach high-school students, but I've found that younger kids are usually just as capable of grasping the relevant concepts. It just requires more explaining and practice to make sure they get it. (Some details that are obvious when you've had more practice in critical thinking might be huge leaps of logic if you're much younger.)

Whatever approach you take, make sure to teach it in the most concrete way you can, and be patient.

 

[RicardoRix]

I taught my son, 10 years old at the time, very similar to the guide by Lucus.

I only helped him with each step only after he was proficient at the last step. I also started him off by doing the sexy move RUR'U' until he could do that without thinking about the moves (certainly helps with the last layer cross amongst other things).
And I didn't really teach\give him algorithm code lists. For example the sune, I explained it with hand gestures (up and out left hand(L'U), up and out right hand(RU'), back in left hand(L), back in right hand(UR')) rather than a series of moves. In fact this is also how I helped remember while teaching myself. Initially it's far easier to remember and recall something visual.

 

[1LastSolve]

Last Layer: http://youtu.be/05vEFHBO9SU

 

[CriticalCubing]

I would probably say the badmephisto tutorial is good, probably the best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=609nhVzg-5Q
Bit long, but worth it!

 

[cmhardw]

I used to be the store manager of a Mathnasium Learning center. There we held trackout camps for the year round students (elementary grades through 6th grade). I taught a number of kids ages 7-12 how to cube, and I detailed my approach in an old post on the Yahoo group.

There is also good information in this thread here on speedsolving.

The basic idea to what I used to do is to teach them a sequence of 9 "pretty patterns" that are really designed to teach them the following concepts:
1) Pair up colors/pieces of like color/type
2) Learn an algorithm (R2 U2)*3 and a basic understand of why it works [i.e. (R2U2)*6 has no visible effect on a solved cube, so do half the number of repetitions to see if we get something interesting]
3) Learn how to apply that algorithm to more complex cases (various ways to apply this algorithm using multiple repetitions/setup and then setdowns)

After they learn these concepts by solving all 9 puzzles, then I move on to teaching them to solve the cube for real. I use a simple layer-layer approach without using any notation. I refer to U turns as "helicopter", and I refer to F turns as "steering wheel". I also do corner insertions as b R b' instead of F D F' since it visually is easier to follow with the wide layer turns.

Lastly, I teach essentially what is Joel van Noort's commutator last layer instead of LL algs. This way the kids develop an understanding of how they are solving the last layer. I have found that kids like this far better than memorizing "algs" and also if they go 6 months without solving, they will still remember how to do it after a long break when they use a commutator based LL method.

I am very interested in the subject of teaching kids to cube. One thing I love about teaching kids is that they are fearless. Adults are quick to tell you "Oh, I could never do that!" Or "I just used to peel the stickers!". However, kids are quick to ask "Can you teach me how to do that?"

 

[Mike Hughey]

I think it's a bit of a challenge to teach kids this young. Certainly not impossible, but a challenge. My middle daughter, Rebecca, learned at age 6 (and competed for the first time right after she turned 7 - she had a 1:36.41 average), but I suspect the only reason she succeeded is because she was trying to keep up with her big sister, who was almost 8, who learned it much more quickly. I simply taught them the standard beginner's method (cross, first layer, middle layer, orient edges, orient corners, permute corners, permute edges), and it took me about a month to teach Marie and about 2 months to teach Rebecca. My youngest daughter Rachel wasn't really willing to try to learn until she was 8, but then she learned very quickly - in less than a week.

In my experience, the magic age appears to be around 9 years old. At that age, the kids just seem to eat it up, and can learn the beginner's method very quickly and easily. I taught a class once for a bunch of kids near us. I broke it up into 4 weeks, an hour long each week, teaching one or two steps each week and asking them to go home and practice solving that far each week. I put a minimum age of 8 on the class, having realized the difficulty for younger kids from earlier experience. Every single student who was 9 years old or older was successful in learning to solve the cube in the 4 weeks, and got averages in our "mini-competition" the following week under 2 minutes. Every single student who was 8, however, was not really able to solve the cube at the end of the 4 weeks - all of them were close, but there were inevitably one or two steps that would trip them up (interestingly, different students struggled with different steps, although almost all of them seemed to struggle with permuting corners). It was a class of (I think) 17 kids, and only 4 of them were 8 years old, so it's a very small sample. But it just seemed like the kids 8 and younger needed a lot more one-on-one attention to "get it".

Again, though, Rebecca was successful in learning to solve at age 6, and I think many kids can be if they're willing to devote the time to it. It just takes a lot of repetition, and then they get it.

By the way, if you want them to eventually be fast at solving (which I realize may not be of interest to you, but just in case it is), it is quite helpful to teach them good finger tricks right away (which might mean learning them yourself). Once they learn bad turning techniques, it's often hard to break the bad habits.

Edit: I just noticed Chris's post, and I think that the commutator approach to the last layer is a pretty good idea. It was definitely "memorizing of algorithms that they didn't understand" that was hardest for the kids to handle (which meant the last layer algorithms), and that was especially true for the 8 year olds (those 9 and up seemed to have much less trouble memorizing algorithms they didn't understand). So if you're going for teaching younger kids, I'd recommend considering Chris's approach.

 

[Cubenovice]

I tought my daughter how to solve the cube when she was 5.

Her progress can be found in this thread:
http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?22183-Kids-Accomplishment-Thread
It was mainly set up to follow kids progress but ocassionally there is some method discussion in the thread.

Feel free to post your kids progress so we can jump in an assist.

I found that taking time is the most important thing.
Be willing to spend many days teaching for just short periods.

I first showed her that a solve consists of several steps (not even mentioning the details)
In our case:
cross
corners
2nd layer edges
U layer cross (orient edges)
permute U layer corners (Niklas)
orient U layer corners (Sune)
permute U layer edges (U-perm)
This is the method as in the written tutorial by Jasmine Lee.

Then I learned her how to make a cross (not even THE) cross and let her practice until she could do it without problems.
Only then I showed het how to make a correct cross.
Then corners.
When proficient with corners: tell to put in the right corners.
And on and on; only teaching a new step when the previous step is fully understood.
For each step I took just as long as was needed; 1 day, 1 week, who cares? it is meant to be fun.

We treated it as a summer holiday project;just teaching and practicing a few minutes before going to bed.

 

[GuRoux]

8335 method seems like the easiest method to me requiring very little algorithms.

 

[Renslay]

8335 method seems like the easiest method to me requiring very little algorithms.

You mean 8355 method, but yeah, I agree.

 

[Schmidt]

http://www.youcandothecube.com/downloads/Solution_Guide.pdf
I learned from this (at age 39), then found badmephisto on YouTube and this site.

 

[Cynthia Moore]

cmhardw,

Is that algorithm in your signature a big nop? That is, does it return the cube to its exact same state?

If so, I think you are missing the final move, [D'].

Shouldn't it be:

R L F2 B2 L' R' U R L B2 F2 L' R' D’

 

[TDM]

cmhardw,

Is that algorithm in your signature a big nop? That is, does it return the cube to its exact same state?

If so, I think you are missing the final move, [D'].

Shouldn't it be:

R L F2 B2 L' R' U R L B2 F2 L' R' D’

He's just trying to do a D move without using the D layer; I don't think it's supposed to return the cube to a solved state.

 

[RjFx2]

http://www.youcandothecube.com/downloads/Solution_Guide.pdf
I learned from this (at age 39), then found badmephisto on YouTube and this site.

That's how I learned but I never went to badmephisto (crazy, right?)

 

[cmhardw]

cmhardw,

Is that algorithm in your signature a big nop? That is, does it return the cube to its exact same state?

If so, I think you are missing the final move, [D'].

Shouldn't it be:

R L F2 B2 L' R' U R L B2 F2 L' R' D’

It's an algorithm that shows that the Rubik's cube is 5-gen. The cube is actually 2-gen, but 5-gen is still pretty cool in my opinion.

He's just trying to do a D move without using the D layer; I don't think it's supposed to return the cube to a solved state.

Yes, pretty much