cubetimer
Regular
In another thread I mentioned that I've been teaching my 5 year old son how to cube and someone asked for tips on how I'm doing so. I thought it would be better off as a new post instead of hijacking an existing thread with a rather length explanation...
I've been breaking it down into really small, easy to manage steps. Basic outline of what I'm teaching him:
- A few basic terms. What is a corner, edge, center, and face.
- I'm staying away from words like clockwise and counter clockwise. I describe all the moves in terms of up, down, left, and right. For example something like R U as I'm looking at the front would be 'up', 'left'.
- I'm teaching algs that are as short as possible, and I'm not teaching mirrors of those algs. I always have him do it on the same side, and multiple times if needed. We'll get to optimizing later.
So my basic steps are this (always keeping yellow center on top):
Cross:
1. Get all the white edges around the yellow center, paying no attention to their permutation, only orientation
2. One edge at a time, turn the top until the edge's non-white color is lined up with the correct center around the outside, then flip that side 180 degrees to put the edge in it's correct position around the white center
First layer:
1. Find a white corner and get it in the top layer. If it's in the bottom, hold the cube so that it's in the FDR, then execute R U R' (we call it up left down)
2. Position the corner over the correct 'slot' by turning U, then hold the cube so that the corner is now in FUR position. Note that everything we do is always working with the right side for consistency.
3. If the white sticker on our target corner isn't pointing to the right (isn't in the R face), execute R U' R (this one is called up RIGHT down - almost identical to the previous move). The corner will need to be put over the correct slot again (repeat step 2). If the sticker still isn't pointing to the right, do it again.
4. R U R' (up left down). The nice thing here is that the moves in step 1, 2, and 4 are basically all the same move, only adjusting which direction you turn the top. The move is short, too, and easy to learn. Basically the top layer goes left when you're moving it from the bottom to top or top to bottom, and it goes right if you want to keep it in the top but twist it.
Second layer:
1. Find an edge in the top without a yellow sticker. Turn the top until the outer sticker matches the center just beneath it. This is now your Front.
2. Execute F U F U F - U' F' U' F' or it's mirror. To teach this move, I've taught my son to look at the right and left side to find which one has the center that matches the edge we're about to place. This determines if our first move is clockwise or counter clockwise. We'll just turn the front in whatever direction puts the edge into it's desired place. Now we have to decide which direction to move the top. One of the two front top corners will have a white sticker pointing to either the right or left. Whichever direction it's pointing, that's the direction the top will go (right or left). I describe the move to my son by finding the first two turns in this manner, then telling him to repeat them alternately 5 times, then backwards 4 times.
3. If, at step one, there are no edges in the top without yellow stickers then we need to break one out of the second layer. To do this we identify an edge we want to break out, then identify any edge currently in the top that has a yellow sticker. Use the moves just described to put that yellow edge into the place currently occupied by the edge we want to break out.
Last layer
We haven't gotten this far yet, but I'm planning on teaching him to use F U R U' R' F' to orient edges. So long as the cube is held such that the UL edge is already yellow side up when you begin (unless all 4 edges need orienting, then it doesn't matter), it's just a matter of repeating the move until all edges are upright
For orienting corners, I plan on teaching him to position a 'bad' corner in the UFR position, doing R' D' R D until that corner is yellow side up, turning the top to put another bad corner in that position, and repeating until all corners are orienting.
Then I think I'll teach him to permute corners and edges with two separate algs. That's going to take a little work at memorizing, but I'm finding he's got a pretty good memory. I'm open to suggestions on the absolute easiest algs possible for memorizing, or any modifications at all to my method at approaching the last layer.
Hope this helps someone else with teaching a kid. Honestly, I've been using this method to teach adults, too. It's broken down into very easy steps and scales well if they want to learn to get faster by optimizing certain steps. It's always memorizing the permutation algs for the last layer that throws people.
I've been breaking it down into really small, easy to manage steps. Basic outline of what I'm teaching him:
- A few basic terms. What is a corner, edge, center, and face.
- I'm staying away from words like clockwise and counter clockwise. I describe all the moves in terms of up, down, left, and right. For example something like R U as I'm looking at the front would be 'up', 'left'.
- I'm teaching algs that are as short as possible, and I'm not teaching mirrors of those algs. I always have him do it on the same side, and multiple times if needed. We'll get to optimizing later.
So my basic steps are this (always keeping yellow center on top):
Cross:
1. Get all the white edges around the yellow center, paying no attention to their permutation, only orientation
2. One edge at a time, turn the top until the edge's non-white color is lined up with the correct center around the outside, then flip that side 180 degrees to put the edge in it's correct position around the white center
First layer:
1. Find a white corner and get it in the top layer. If it's in the bottom, hold the cube so that it's in the FDR, then execute R U R' (we call it up left down)
2. Position the corner over the correct 'slot' by turning U, then hold the cube so that the corner is now in FUR position. Note that everything we do is always working with the right side for consistency.
3. If the white sticker on our target corner isn't pointing to the right (isn't in the R face), execute R U' R (this one is called up RIGHT down - almost identical to the previous move). The corner will need to be put over the correct slot again (repeat step 2). If the sticker still isn't pointing to the right, do it again.
4. R U R' (up left down). The nice thing here is that the moves in step 1, 2, and 4 are basically all the same move, only adjusting which direction you turn the top. The move is short, too, and easy to learn. Basically the top layer goes left when you're moving it from the bottom to top or top to bottom, and it goes right if you want to keep it in the top but twist it.
Second layer:
1. Find an edge in the top without a yellow sticker. Turn the top until the outer sticker matches the center just beneath it. This is now your Front.
2. Execute F U F U F - U' F' U' F' or it's mirror. To teach this move, I've taught my son to look at the right and left side to find which one has the center that matches the edge we're about to place. This determines if our first move is clockwise or counter clockwise. We'll just turn the front in whatever direction puts the edge into it's desired place. Now we have to decide which direction to move the top. One of the two front top corners will have a white sticker pointing to either the right or left. Whichever direction it's pointing, that's the direction the top will go (right or left). I describe the move to my son by finding the first two turns in this manner, then telling him to repeat them alternately 5 times, then backwards 4 times.
3. If, at step one, there are no edges in the top without yellow stickers then we need to break one out of the second layer. To do this we identify an edge we want to break out, then identify any edge currently in the top that has a yellow sticker. Use the moves just described to put that yellow edge into the place currently occupied by the edge we want to break out.
Last layer
We haven't gotten this far yet, but I'm planning on teaching him to use F U R U' R' F' to orient edges. So long as the cube is held such that the UL edge is already yellow side up when you begin (unless all 4 edges need orienting, then it doesn't matter), it's just a matter of repeating the move until all edges are upright
For orienting corners, I plan on teaching him to position a 'bad' corner in the UFR position, doing R' D' R D until that corner is yellow side up, turning the top to put another bad corner in that position, and repeating until all corners are orienting.
Then I think I'll teach him to permute corners and edges with two separate algs. That's going to take a little work at memorizing, but I'm finding he's got a pretty good memory. I'm open to suggestions on the absolute easiest algs possible for memorizing, or any modifications at all to my method at approaching the last layer.
Hope this helps someone else with teaching a kid. Honestly, I've been using this method to teach adults, too. It's broken down into very easy steps and scales well if they want to learn to get faster by optimizing certain steps. It's always memorizing the permutation algs for the last layer that throws people.
