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My 5 year old son and KerbalEDU


Catto

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Hey guys. Considering getting my son into this. He may or may not be ready for it. The mission library has no content for the 5-6 age filter. Can someone provide any insight as to where to begin? Thanks.

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I don't have KerbalEDU so my input here may not be what you're looking for:

5yrs is, in my opinion, a little young to be getting into KSP. There are many people in their 20's that I know who had trouble playing. However, if this is something you really want him to get into, I'd just play along with him.

He's going to have questions and he's going to face challenges that he isn't going to be able to overcome on his own. So instead of saying, "Here, Junior, fly me to the moon," designate allotted play times and sit there with him.

Plus that way you can monitor what he's getting and what he isn't and help him along without it turning into homework-disguised-as-a-game.

But again, I don't have KerbalEDU so I have no idea if there's a structured set of "lessons" or whatever. I'm basing this post entirely off of normal KSP.

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@sjwt great idea... didn't know there was a demo.

@Greenfire32 there are lessons. That's the only way I'd really dive into it. The last thing I want to do is frustrate and discourage him.

@neamerjell, pxi, CJ he can definitely do it, the concepts might be over his head... Hes pretty savvy and absolutely LOVES building stuff. LEGOS in particular. Can do 7-10 yo sets by himself. I taught him to sort and he goes through each step. I review when he's done. If I find a mistake I make him tear it down to the step where it went wrong and rebuild it til he gets it right... he gets pissed at me sometimes but it's good for him... Already teaching him multiplication with LEGO bricks :) It's perfect

Thanks for all your input guys

@CJ Haha, that was not me...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got the boy going on the demo last night. I walked him through the training section of construction basics. I leav him there for a bit or until her gets bored.

He was so concerned that the Kerbal was going to die if he didn't safely land the command module.

He also seemed to THOROUGHLY enjoy deploying his parachute at lift off.

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Why not just try it? There is a good chance the kid will get it, which is good. If not, there is nothing lost. Maybe it will be ready a little later.

It is probably good the child finds its own limits when it comes to things like these, rather than a parent deciding it is too hard or complicated.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Why not just try it? There is a good chance the kid will get it, which is good. If not, there is nothing lost. Maybe it will be ready a little later.

It is probably good the child finds its own limits when it comes to things like these, rather than a parent deciding it is too hard or complicated.

Congratulations, you have such an intelligent and caring son, If you ask me, I never cared too much about the lives of kerbonauts, after all they gave thier green life in the name of science, what greater honor could meet them?, and I can always recruit new kerbonauts :D

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Got the boy going on the demo last night. I walked him through the training section of construction basics. I leav him there for a bit or until her gets bored.

He was so concerned that the Kerbal was going to die if he didn't safely land the command module.

He also seemed to THOROUGHLY enjoy deploying his parachute at lift off.

He sounds just like me on my first day in the Kerbal Universe. Heck, I couldn't get out of the atmosphere, but I was just having a blast seeing the fire come out of my creations as they boost into the air. Just wait until he learns how to travel to other planets.

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  • 1 month later...

my 5 and 6 year olds enjoy playing KSP with me immensely, it's just a matter of framing it properly. a little bit less pieces to choose from, a little help aligning them and a little help flying them ( dad or mechjeb works ;) )

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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Over the holidays, I fired up KSP on a laptop, partly to entertain myself, and partly to see if I could draw any of the extended family's younger ones away from creative mode mobile Minecraft.

First, a 9-year-old nephew watched (parts of) a Mun mission and rescue. He checked in periodically but didn't get too involved.

Next day, a 6-year-old niece asked if she could build her own craft. Sure! I was surprised how quickly she adapted to the editor with some at-the-elbow support. Selecting and placing parts was no problem. We launched a few simple parachute-pod-tank-engine rockets, and then the plane parts caught her attention, so off to the hangar we went. I probably interfered too much at that point---her first plane flew so well that she got bored with it and wandered off.

Overall, I'm convinced that a brief guided session would be enough to allow an interested kid to become self-sufficient in the iterative design process. They may not go to orbit right away (but then again who does?), and the stuff that they do manage will be fun on its own.

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My little cousin who's 6 is just like Skye from Scott Manley. She always wants me to crash :sticktongue: .

One time while I was doing my first Kerballed missioned to Jool, while I was Aerobreaking she throttled my engines up and pointed prograde and while I was turning back, it exploded. :( (Thank God for Quicksave).

She does play on it from time to time, but as for creating rockets/planes, she just finds it boring and looses interest.

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  • 1 month later...
On 2/11/2015 at 0:41 PM, Commander Jebidiah said:

just to say everyone that there is a 2 year old that built a rocket then realised a staging mistake fixed it and flew again.

kids playing KSP is better than kids playing Mineccraft

On 10/21/2015 at 4:26 PM, wissx said:

strong enough to breathe*****

then USE your head :P

Edited by Ogcorp CEO
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