🧑‍🤝‍🧑 / 🏡 I appreciate good teachers. And what I learned seeing someone teach the game of Chess impressed the heck out of me.

[TerryP]

I know it isn't true. But, it's a great tool if ever needed.

I learned how to play chess in an unusual way. A friend of mine, David, introduced me to the game. In the first week I'd bought a cheap chess set and checked out a book of past chess games from the library in Memphis. I knew the pieces and how they moved; the book introduced me to strategies.

How do you teach someone how the pieces move? Hearing this explained in this manner shocked me in its simplicity.

A Knight is represented by a horse. A horse has two ears and a snout. There's two squares one way, one perpendicular.
A Rook has merlons (notches) which indicated rank and file for movement. Four directions: left or right along with up and down the file.
A Queen often has eight indentations on her crown: she moves in all eight directions.

Now, look at the bishop. The slit? Diagonal movement.

If you play...it's a bit crazy when you think about it, right?

 

[alabama mike]

I am teaching a youngster to play the game of Chess. He is a 12 year old former student in my building. RS has been in group homes for the past 5 years bc he has no family and no one has fostered him yet. The latest facility is very structured, he has daily chores, meets with a counselor twice a weekand works one on one with a teacher and aide. He is making remarkable progress with the game and in his development of academic and personal goals. Mrs. Bama and I will bring him to our house for some short, day visits and then hopefully, in the future, he will be able to stay overnight. He has to reach a specific level in the program to be able to do that. He has only been at this new facility since early Nov.

 

[TerryP]

I am teaching a youngster to play the game of Chess. He is a 12 year old former student in my building. RS has been in group homes for the past 5 years bc he has no family and no one has fostered him yet. The latest facility is very structured, he has daily chores, meets with a counselor twice a weekand works one on one with a teacher and aide. He is making remarkable progress with the game and in his development of academic and personal goals.

I can see the game offering some good "life lesson" opportunities. Decision making, ya know? Am I leaving myself vunerable?

 

[alabama mike]

I can see the game offering some good "life lesson" opportunities. Decision making, ya know? Am I leaving myself vunerable?

Chess is a GREAT game to teach some of those life lessons!!! He is developing thinking skills and challenges (via moves on the board). We are also playing some card games to work on his Math skills. He is learning skills as we play the games.

 

[footballer]

I am teaching a youngster to play the game of Chess. He is a 12 year old former student in my building. RS has been in group homes for the past 5 years bc he has no family and no one has fostered him yet. The latest facility is very structured, he has daily chores, meets with a counselor twice a weekand works one on one with a teacher and aide. He is making remarkable progress with the game and in his development of academic and personal goals. Mrs. Bama and I will bring him to our house for some short, day visits and then hopefully, in the future, he will be able to stay overnight. He has to reach a specific level in the program to be able to do that. He has only been at this new facility since early Nov.

Very commendable Mike.

I think I learned my life lessons playing Old Maid and Go Fish .

 

[alabama mike]

I can see the game offering some good "life lesson" opportunities. Decision making, ya know? Am I leaving myself vunerable?

Very commendable Mike.

I think I learned my life lessons playing Old Maid and Go Fish .

I need to find some type of game that works on his reading skills. The young man reads at a 2nd grade level. I am going to use K-2 sight words this Sunday during my visit.

 

[TerryP]

I need to find some type of game that works on his reading skills.

Word recognition? Spelling? Pronunciations? Tough one there, Mike.

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

This thread reminds me of this that I saw earlier this week. The level of disrespect… LOL

 

[footballer]

Needless to say, I am light years removed from his and your situation. Only thing that comes to mind is Inspiration. Every word ever written, The Bible, all books, newspapers, magazines, internet fluff was all written for him. To read, understand, comprehend and separate all the Good from the Bad. That reading is a passageway to all knowledge. Try to inspire him that reading is the key that will unlock doors for him the rest of his life.

When I was young, I was interested in adventure books such as Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson or Tarzan The Ape Man, The Hardy Boys Adventures as well as biographies of inventors like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Reading to him a little from something like one of these books may peek his interest enough to put him on the right track to reading and learning.

BTW, I hope he does not have some undiscovered learning impediment. Some kids and adults cover themselves pretty well to keep hidden such things like dyslexia. I hope you and your wife as well as others can be the difference in this young mans life. Now is the correct time.

 

[TerryP]

Needless to say, I am light years removed from his and your situation. Only thing that comes to mind is Inspiration. Every word ever written, The Bible, all books, newspapers, magazines, internet fluff was all written for him. To read, understand, comprehend and separate all the Good from the Bad. That reading is a passageway to all knowledge. Try to inspire him that reading is the key that will unlock doors for him the rest of his life.

I don't see this as practical. I get the ideology behind what you are saying and I don't stand on the opposite side of the fence.

What I don't see is you are taking something even scholars have a hard time reading and comprehending and suggesting that as material.

---

---

---

Just a thought, Mike. Letters to words. Words to sentences.

I'd take a Yahtzee game. Scrabble tiles would work but I think the Yahtzee cubes would be more age appropriate and, well, more fun, visually, for a kid.

Assuming he knows the difference between a constanant and a vowel get him to choose both up to a total of nine letters. (IE: Six constanants and three vowels.)

As example: E.S,O,A,W,M,I, and G. You could get "minges."

In my mind's eye if you could get him to create words out of a puzzle like that and then take the two or three words he just created in the puzzle with the final challenge of using those three words in a sentence together? You'd be knocking out several things in one fatal swoop; spelling and sentence structure being two. It should get arbitrary with the words which will make sentence structure more difficult.

Now, if we had ...

G,E,S,U,L,I,P,N, and K ...

He could get the word "spunk" which would work in a sentence with minges. It might not be age appropriate.

 

[footballer]

@TerryP @alabama mike
Looks like I did a terrible job trying to make a point in my above post. I didn't mean the kid should start out trying to learn to read the Bible. That would be crazy. I have trouble reading the Bible, comprehending the Old Speak. My point is that all print is written to be read. From Mike's post, it sounded to me like the kid is lacking in inspiration. With so many woes in his young like, I can somewhat understand his situation. We all know that reading, writing and comprehension go hand in hand. To learn, a person needs to be inspired. A person doesn't know he wants to learn until he has learned.

 

[TerryP]

@TerryP @alabama mike
Looks like I did a terrible job trying to make a point in my above post. I didn't mean the kid should start out trying to learn to read the Bible. That would be crazy. I have trouble reading the Bible, comprehending the Old Speak. My point is that all print is written to be read. From Mike's post, it sounded to me like the kid is lacking in inspiration. With so many woes in his young like, I can somewhat understand his situation. We all know that reading, writing and comprehension go hand in hand. To learn, a person needs to be inspired. A person doesn't know he wants to learn until he has learned.

In a sense, we are both talking about inspiration but we're using two different words. I've had some experience writing curriculum for pre-school. In that experience I found they learn a lot more quickly if they're having fun; the learning part almost comes by osmosis. The enjoyment would be their inspiration.

 

[alabama mike]

I have taught reading early in my career but I am trying to find something that will help/motivate him. He does have a specific learning disability, hence the 2nd grade reading level.

No issue with you at all @footballer.

This kid has just been dealt a very bad hand in life and I am trying to be someone he can rely on. In fact, I just literally got off the phone with him. He is allowed to call on Wednesday and Saturday. I go visit him every Sunday after church.