teaching little kids

[motohidari]

okay, how the hell you you teach 4 or 5 year old kids?
those rambunctious little %#(&!rds are impossiple to keep in line.
tell 'em one thing it goes in one ear and out the other, and while you're
talking to one, the others are off running around raising all manner of hell.
if they were adults it would be easy to explain the meaning of discipline etc.
but little kids (God bless them) can drive you crazy.
open to suggestions, onegaishimasu.

[Critical_Bill]

i think that it's in kids job description, point 1a "annoy grownups"
I saw a guy have some success with kids by organizing the practise more in a "play time" manner, and basically keep'em occupied but not overworked.
there was a thread about it on usenet alt.martial-arts or somesuch :)

[nodachi]

Hmmm... kids are so fun... insert sarcasm... especially 2 year olds and 3 year olds...

Really, sometimes they are great, but they are bonkers. In my experiences with teaching young children (not kendo, but at work here, and different sports camp jobs) it is vital to minimize their waiting time. Keep them as active as possible.

Do the serious, important, but maybe boring things near the beginning of practice when they still have their attention span, but tire them out temporarily before hand so they don't have the energy to goof off. Do something physically demanding so when you are doing something that they don't have the attention span for, they are tired and since they are resting, they may as well as pay attention.

Keep the atmosphere fun and light and humorous. Always end with something fun to keep them coming back.

[ben]

4 and 5 year olds? That's pretty young for kendo. I assume you've got tiny shinais for them - little kids' arms get tired very quickly just doing suburi or maintaining kamae. At that age the class has got to be more about fun than about kendo. Along the way they might just learn some movements that fit into kendo later on.

I teach a class of 7- 10 year olds and they're hard enough. There are three things that I've learned so far:

1) Keep it fun, but also have really clearly defined rules and make sure that you are THE authority in the dojo. You make the rules, not them.

2) Kids are amazing sponges. They are capable of absorbing incredible amounts of input of all levels: from fart jokes to the history and function of dojo etiquette. They start from further behind adults in the general knowledge stakes, but what goes in lodges much deeper.

3) Consistency and structure is very important. Even if they're running around the place, doesn't mean you should be. The teacher is like the calm centre of the storm.

Motohidari - I've got a list of dojo rules. If you want I could email them to you. I found my class really responded to them after a particularly "rambunctious" lesson where the kamiza got smashed. They knew they had gone too far and were ready for some boundaries to be enforced. They loved me explaining the origins of the old etiquette and felt with strict rules in place they were now doing really serious "traditional" training. These are kids who all came to kendo via the Star Wars movies, so their staring point was a love of mythology and ancient traditions. IOW kids come to kendo for the rules because rules and tradition are what makes it different to basketball.

I know it sometimes seems futile, but if you work out an approach and stick to it, the kids will get the message. Gambatte kudasai.

b

PS - I agree with nodachi about tiring them out a little as a way of keeping control of the class but be aware - kids are not adults. Their muscles don't undergo hypertrophy (repair/get bigger in response to increased work/load bearing) like adults do, so don't run them into the ground thinking it's getting them fitter. It's not. They need short but constant bursts of activity, not a few big efforts.

[munenmuso]

Barney in bogu and hakama will do:D. My little tyrrant, who's two year's old listens more to that lizard than me.


Well in our dojo, the parents of those children participate in every practice by actively guiding their children throughout the session. I think children relate and listen to their parents more than any other sensei at their age so we ask for their assistance while their seated on the bleachers. It is also effective to place women sempais on the childrens section because they can relate to them as their mother. The Suzuki method even works in Kendo.

[Hongsermeier]

Motohidari....Where do you practice in LA? We have a large number of kids at Sho Tokyo. We even have one 3 year old. He runs around and tries to do what everyone else is doing. I really love seeing him do Kakari Geiko. A lot of our kids parents also practice, helps to keep them interested.

[reicheru]

Practices are usually pretty short for the youngest kids in my dojo. They do stretches with everyone else, then they usually get separated to work on other stuff. Sometimes they do suburi with the rest of the group too. There aren't usually many parents around, but most kids do a pretty good job of paying attention to the sensei. There are various ways in which the sensei make things more fun for the little ones -- one activity that they sometimes do at the end of practice (as a reward, perhaps) is run around trying to bounce big colorful bouncy balls with their shinai. Ok, maybe it doesn't have that much to do with kendo, and they're not necessarily holding the shinai correctly or using proper footwork, but it helps them develop hand-eye coordination and get better at striking a target. The slightly older kids stand in a circle and try to bounce the ball back and forth to each other. I tried this once with them, and found it's more difficult than it looks!

Rachel

[ben]

Parents are a really important part of teaching kids I've found. If they do kendo too then your job is made a million times easier (unless the parents disagree with or undermine your teaching in some way but that's another story). With my group only one parent has ever done kendo before. It's so important for the environment to feel in some way safe or familiar.

And of course the parents are the ones who bring the kids in the first place, so they've gotta be into it at some level.

Rachel's post has given me an idea for another thread...

b