Teaching young children

[David Pritts]

Anyone have experience teaching young kids?

One of my students is 4 years old, and he's extremely bright. Just for fun, I gave him the cube with E2 M2 S2. He looked at it and solved it from that pattern in under 20 seconds (probably without having ever used a cube before).

I've just started to teach him... but I know it will take a while, so if anyone has ideas, let me know!

thanks

David

 

[AndyRoo789]

Uhh..
Use language that he would understand.
E.g. Instead of saying "adjacent", say "next to" or something like that.

 

[David Pritts]

Oh, I should mention the other part... he's Chinese

But if I need to explain something that exceeds my Chinese skills (likely), there are plenty of people who can help me translate.

 

[aronpm]

I tried to teach my 9 year old cousin how to solve the 2x2x2. When I said clockwise, he asked me to explain it. So I explained to him (for about 2 minutes) about how it's the same direction that the hands turn on the clock. He said, "I don't get it." so I :fp'd and walked away. Do schools even teach kids how to read analogue clocks any more?

When my 7 year old cousin gets a 3x3x3 for Christmas I'll probably try to teach her how to solve it. She's smart She worked out how to make and solve patterns, like the checker pattern, M E2 M' E2, M E M' E', etc.

 

[LNZ]

Actually, my parents tried to get me to solve a 3x3x3 cube way back in 1981 (at age 11). They brought me the cube and two solution books, but in all that time, I could not tell between D and D'. And could not solve it. Had my parents showed me the difference, I would of seen it and not had to wait to solve it 28 years later.

So a suggestion here.

Show colorful picture cards of each clockwise and and anti-clockwise motions of each face. ie a colorful picture card for F, F', R, R', D, D', etc

And once the person knows all the face motions, get the person to watch a Youtube video to solve a 3x3 cube. For example, Dan Brown's videos.

 

[David Pritts]

Well, I don't plan on using cubing notation.. he just learned the alphabet! For algorithms, I can just draw little pictures for each move (i usually do this even for adults because it's easier than teaching them the notation, and I figure if they care enough about cubing, they'll teach themselves the notation).

I can't use youtu.be videos because that website is blocked in China

 

[LarsN]

I'm in the process of teaching my 9 year old son. He has just learned how to orient the last layer, so he's nearly there.

He has no problem learning algorithms from just me showing him and either counting moves or getting him to say out loud: this side towards me and the top away...
I just go over the steps one at a time and let him do the step again and again until it's nearly muscle memory doing the work.

Biggest problem is for him to see the cubies as cubies and not as individual stickers.

 

[thiJUMBA]

it's easier than teaching them the notation, and I figure if they care enough about cubing, they'll teach themselves the notation).

I can't use youtu.be videos because that website is blocked in China

i agree with showing them pictures instead of saying "UI F Ui R" and all that..
also to help people remember the algoritms show them what happens to each piece as you make a move.

& goodluck teaching =D its gonna be harder than you think X)