Encouraging the young

[dadlamassu]

This weekend I spent a lot of time rearranging the wargames room to make it more grandson friendly. 

The first step was to empty it and remove my 7 foot by 5 foot table.  This was set at about 41 inches in height as recommended by Donald Featherstone (I think).  The supports for the table incorporated a lot of figure and terrain storage.  Though this was ideal for adults and avoided granddad back strain it is at almost eye-level for 6-8 year olds who want to play "proper war games" with "our" Lord of the Rings and Hobbit Strategy Game figures.

So Step 2 was to replace it.  The table was lowered to normal table height of a table.  In our junk room were two pasting tables that had been my wargames table when I was a student about 45 years ago.  Real vintage stuff!  onto these went the Thomas the Tank engine base board.  Then on top of that went 2 boards each 3 foot by 4 foot making a 6x4 foot table.  These dated back about 20 years when I lost the wargames room when it became a kids bedroom.  We gained a lot of space round the table by doing this and turning it through 90 degrees.  The old surface was carefully removed and stored on its edge behind some storage cabinets so we can get the "big one" back in the future.

Since there was now less storage space under the table Step 3 saw a couple of shelves being put up against the back wall to take displaced items. 

Step 4 involved about three rearrangements I now have things where they might be most useful.  Though having changed things it will take a while to get used to their new positions.

Step 5 is now ongoing - getting the playing surface clear and keeping it that way except when we are playing a game.

Both grandsons came round tonight and the reaction was "WOW!"  They are keen to get a game organised for Friday.  The boys can see over the table, reach at least half way over the table but grandad does get a bit of backache so I'll need a chair!

[Elbows]

I had planned to slowly see if my 8 year old nephew was interested in gaming (was planning on playing the new revised Hero Quest with him etc.) but when he walked into the hobby room one night, saw an entire  table of Dwarven Forge dungeon scenery and a heap of painted beasties...he didn't so much as shrug.  Guess that's a lost cause! 

When I was a kid I used to love going to my dad's friend's place because I knew he had a plastic bin under his guest bed which was filled with Roco minitanks.  While my dad and him chatted I just sat there and dug in.  I suppose my nephew just wasn't bitten at all by the toy soldier bug.  I'll stick to non-wargaming style games and stuff with him in the future methinks.

[Daeothar]

Like every wargaming father, I'm hoping that my kid (daughter in this case) will be interested in playing wargames when she grows up. But since she's only 2.5 years old, that will be a while still...

I do have a nephew who's now 13 years old. I bought him an X-Wing game about a year ago, and he really enjoys playing that. And even though he was labeled as being a lot like his uncle for years, it seems that the hobby thing is just wasted on him. he has no interest in painting or modeling whatsoever, and frankly, is just very clumsy , which limits his interest even more of course.

My little girl though, just yesterday pulled up a chair next to me while I was painting and looked on with much interest. 'Daddy paint plane' she even remarked (I was repainting some X-wing ships), and then proceeded to gather her own water paint and brush and began to very intrinsically paint a Hello Kitty colouring picture. So there is some hope for the future yet...

[tyrionhalfman]

My eldest is 7 and she has recently got into Frostgrave with me. I hope her enthusiasm lasts

[Noverre Man]

In the past have used the old barbers idea of a board across the arms of a dining chair, but for the present am working on a folding box 3 ft square which slides under an armchair and unfolds onto a coffee table, and replacing her dice with ones without a six just to give myself a chance

[Serialoser]

My daughter (now 5) has been asking to paint "Papa's Orcs" since she was 3-much to her mothers disapproval.
I bought her a bag of 99p plastic soldiers which she still happily sits down and paints with me, albeit in some rather interesting colours.

I took her into a GW once whilst I was after some paint, she proudly walked around pointing out Orcs, Dwarves, Elves. Just got to get her gaming when the attention span holds out!