I open a second study journal, not for me but for my kid. He's always been interested in the game since watching me play. Lately, I've tried to use that interest to teach him a little. I'm sharing my experiments here, in the hope that others on this forum will come and share their insights about teaching go to young kids.

My son is three and a half. He enjoys sharing that activity with me and often asks for the board and stones. He's full of interest for the game. He can also be quite focused when playing any game, but he prefers making up his own rules. He has objections to following other people's rules Go is one of the activities that make him work on that.

Our material:
- Indestructible cheap plastic stones and indestructible cheap board
- Computer and android tablet for various go software

What he already learned:
- How to store white and black stones in separate bowls (and not eat them, mix them, throw them, other parents will complete for me this non-exhaustive list...)
- How to put down the stones on the board, on the intersections, not in the squares
- Players take either white or black and play alternatively

What he's currently learning:
- How to capture a single stone
- Not move stones around after they were put on the board
- Not remove stones after they were put on the board, unless captured

Point one is the main focus. The rest will make more sense for him when we start playing capture go together, so I'm not particularly strict on enforcing it for now.

So I'm trying to teach my son how to capture a single stone on the board. It's harder than one might think. I showed an example and he imitated me. But he didn't understand the underlying concept (where a stone's liberties are). He is able to reproduce the capture of one center stone, but can't apply that knowledge to first line stones. After a few days he forgets and tries again to fill the intersection that are no liberties:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . X X X . . . . .
$$ | . X O X . . . . .
$$ | . X X X . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

I introduced him to GoChild, but the stars didn't align. First he got angry at the program for not giving him more black stones, then he noticed the pretty house-shaped problem further down and went on to make a house on the board.
I tried to introduce him to igowin as well, although it's too early for that. He was amused for a while, but I think it confuses him and doesn't help.

At the moment I think repetition is my best option. As long as he still enjoys taking out the board, what could go wrong?

I also ordered that (on the recommendation of oren given on another thread, long ago):
http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B005419 ... ge_o00_s00

It will take a while to arrive, since it's being shipped from Japan. I hope the smaller board will help.

Let him enjoy it and pick up all the subtleties by himself.

That's interesting advice. I may be trying too hard instead of just letting things happen.
My lutin has a little bit of trouble with the *quiet* word, though If there's a book in my hands, he'll grab it. But he's young, so maybe that's just normal for his age

Anyway, I'm planning to go to a local tournament in two weeks. My husband and kid will tag along for part of the afternoon, so he'll have an occasion to watch me play with other people, not just with the computer.

Take turns (hard at that age!) with them placing stones on the board. Make "go shapes" yourself and let them do whatever they like. I remember someone on here recommending this a few years back and it sounded excellent for a young child, even at 5 it's a better approach with my daughter than capture go or similar.

It doesn't matter if they learn the game or not so long as they're having fun!

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Help make L19 more organized. Make an index: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5207

I'll try that!


I think the fun factor can only increase if they do learn something. But it needs to fit their intellectual maturity and interest for the game, so I'm tiptoeing to see what kind of doors I can open for him.

With reading, we know that for kids who have books early and have stories told to them, it will be much easier and more fun to learn how to read once they're at that stage. Seems to fit what you and Ed are proposing. Telling go stories with the stones

Foster the interest, the rest will take care of itself*.

*May not hold in reality, but sounds nice!

At 6 years old, My daugther liked to draw flowers with the stones... well... that was not that far from a ponnuki...

She also liked playing "atari go" (start with a crosscut at the center of the board, and the first one who capture a stone win the game)

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Converting the book Shape UP! by Charles Matthews/Seong-June Kim
to the gobook format. last updated april 2015 - Index of shapes, p.211 / 216

It just arrived Even my husband agrees to play me on that one. If I'd known that, I would have bought it much earlier!

よんろのご。 Are those plastic or wooden pieces ?

It's wood. It's a very nice set

Nice!

We've played around a bit with the apple-tree board, but the lutin doesn't seem to identify it as the same game than the one with white and black stones

Yesterday, watching me review a game on the computer, he wanted to try doing the same. At his request, I set up an empty 9x9 board in CGoban for him to set stones on. I was surprised at how interesting it was for him!
He tried putting down stones and then capturing them (he told me he wanted to eat this one or that one). And it was great, because there was no need to argue about rules. Captured stones disappear instantly, giving him immediate feedback. Illegal moves are simply impossible.

He captured a three stone group by accident and was delighted We'd only tried capturing single stones. He tried to reproduce the experiment but as greedy as he is, he choose a very big target group and couldn't quite manage it. But I think he's understood a lot more with just ten minutes of fooling around with Cgoban than with GoChild or any other idea I came up with.

So, for now I'll just let him do his own experiments. Let's see what he finds out.

I add the sgf of yesterday, only for my own proud-mom benefit

Hi Amelia,

26 to 29 is really funny !

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Converting the book Shape UP! by Charles Matthews/Seong-June Kim
to the gobook format. last updated april 2015 - Index of shapes, p.211 / 216

Yeah, he seemed to enjoy arranging the stones like that
Since then he experimented some more, and I think he now creates big, clunky, fat groups on purpose, just so he can capture them later. I wonder if that's good or bad

If he can arrange his opponent's stones in clumps, that's pretty good. His own, though ...

All good. As long as he enjoys playing with the set, it's good.

That's part of the beauty with computers, it enforces the rules (even though you don't understand them), and you can't argue back. Its really difficult to try and enforce that same sort of discipline with our kids on our own.

As Boidhre suggests, at that age, just taking turns is often a good enough rule to learn first. Let him play where he wants. Play Chinese rules and maybe no pass, so that eventually the board is filled and somebody loses all their stones (try to setup positions he can win, so as not to discourage too quickly). Really small boards may be better for that. Use CGoban if that helps (enforcing the rules, and all that).

Eager to hear your progress, both good or bad

I think when he gets a bit older at least going to tournaments could awaken his interest for the game. If there is some event for the older children, then maybe he'll get interested.

I taught my cousin the game a while back, she was 10 at the time, but she found it really boring though. It wasn't until I taught it to my other cousin (9 years) and got them to fight each other that they got interested.