Teaching go to kids in Europe

[gennan]

@bugcat

@gennan has experience teaching children in the Netherlands.

I’m not really “teaching” children much. I’m more a facilitator who enables children to play go with each other. What I’ve been doing is very similar to what @teapoweredrobot describes about his primary school club (and with very similar results):

@teapoweredrobot

I think it’s much easier to set up something that will be sustained if you can do it as part of school. Our club is at lunchtime and so the children can come and play Go (or chess) or play outside so it’s flexible. Only the ones who want to play will come and play. In primary school, we have about 40 children registered and about 20 play each week. In secondary it’s fewer but they play more often and more consistently. 9 to 12 years old is the perfect age range I think but we teach from 5.
In terms of actually teaching, with young children you can teach the rules quite easily and then they often figure out a lot themselves playing each other on 9x9. You can then help with particular stages (two eyes, when to pass, ko, etc.) And after a while the ones who are better can help beginners. And then their parents!

Lunch time go club here in Baarle: