Proud Dad Moment

[MrOsterman]

My son has been playing Kerbal off and on since he saw one of my friends sons (who is aged 14) playing it.  At the ripe age of 8, my kid decided he could TOTALLY do that.

He started a career mode (because that's what Dad plays) and after a few weeks was broke, with no recovered science, and nothing but tears.  I managed to convince him to restart on science and he did, experimenting with this and that and only losing a few Kerbals (Valentina... RIP).

Yesterday he built, launched and put a satellite into orbit.  There was some coaching on his flight plan, and some "hmm... you're going north instead of east..." and even a little bit of "okay when you get to the AP mark do this..."

But then he looked at me and said "So how long is it going to be up there?"  "Forever."  "Like I can leave the game on for a month and it'll still be there."  "Yep."

"This.  Is.  So.  Cool!"

Now to start letting the 4 year old play.  We could use another woman in the Rocket Sciences.....

 

[Warzouz]

Very cool !

My son wanted to play too. He was 7 1/2 when he tried. I tried to teach him how to build a rocket and how to fly it. 1.0 aero is much harder than beta. Then, he wanted to "know" before "learning" (as kids seems to do...) and wanted to land on the Mun on his own.

This is quite a big step and was frustrated about it. Going to the Mun without knowing how to circularize is ... hard. He dropped the game then.

Now he's in Pixel Art...

Edited January 22, 2016 by Warzouz

[MrOsterman]

Small steps.  Mine too wanted to build massive cool rockets and was really hesitant to use the "revert" button in career so he burned most of his money replacing dead kerbals.

But give it time and those little victories do add up.  He watches me play A LOT too so he can see where the game eventually goes.

[The Optimist]

Yesterday my dad launched his first satellite

I'm so proud of him.

[Curveball Anders]

1 hour ago, The Optimist said:

Yesterday my dad launched his first satellite

I'm so proud of him.

Given the average computer skills measured over age groups I'd say that this is the most likely scenario.

My kids got their own (assembled from cheap and picked up parts) computers when they turned 4.

Youngest is now 18 and don't think any of them have spent many days of their lives so far without interacting with a computer of some kind

[Warzouz]

My son just landed on Minmus, using KerbalX. He didn't want MechJeb's help, but he got some Mech-daddy's help to get a proper intercept and return home.

[Nikolai]

I have to agree.  I made getting into orbit the condition on which I'd buy my daughter a full copy of the game.  When she did it, she was grinning from ear to ear.   Sadly, she doesn't play as much as she used to; Minecraft has been more of her kind of thing lately.  But she learned how to talk about "periapsis" and "retrograde".  And it's still a proud papa moment.

[Cryova]

Oh gosh....

That's going to be my little brother in like 3 years.

[Triop]

I have a 16 year old daughter that plays "Moviestar Planet" all day... ...No planets or stars there....

[Spacetraindriver]

I try to let/teach my little bro play it, and he really does like it, but not really, like when he does it he's like  but after he's like :/ He's always making the plane's rear to heavy and making it tip over.  

[maceemiller]

My 3 1/2 year old granddaughter watches me play KSP and is convinced that every rocket she sees either on telly or in books her PaPa is flying

Edited March 1, 2016 by maceemiller

[MagicFireCaster]

I'm still hoping my brother would like to play KSP one of this days, he plays a lot of other games, but not so much simulator games 

[Rainbowtrout]

I always like hearing about younger people being interested in KSP, and space in general. It's better than other games that kids often play,  teaches children rational thinking, and helps them develop an interest in space. Maybe when they grow up NASA will get more funding

[AbacusWizard]

It's always cool to see the next generation learning. I don't have any kids of my own but I do recommend KSP to any of my students who show an interest in orbital physics or space travel.