Can Parents Teach Their Preschoolers to Play Chess?
Clearwater, FL, May 15, 2012 - How soon can parents start teaching their children to play chess? In their Mongoose Press book, Chess is Child's Play, chess educators Laura Sherman and Bill Kilpatrick contend that parents can teach their children before they reach school age. By breaking down the elements of the game into "mini-games," parents and young children alike can learn chess at their own pace.
"The first challenge was to teach chess to the parent who isn't familiar with the game," Sherman says. "We found that some parents were intimidated by chess. However, after applying our techniques they realized that they could learn to play, along with their children. Really anyone can learn to play the game if they are taught properly."
Sherman and her husband Dan founded Your Chess Coach in Clearwater, Florida, where they teach dozens of children aged 3-16 each week in various schools. This experience helped them to discover what works and what doesn't.
"My father taught me to play chess when I was nine years old," Sherman notes. "I think many parents feel that a child needs to be at least that age to learn, but I have found that very young children love to learn chess and do quite well. Young boys and girls gravitate naturally to a chess set!"
The "Learning to Think Project" in Venezuela showed that IQ increased in elementary school children when they learned to play chess. A study in New York showed that even reading skill can improve thanks to chess. Many other studies around the world give similar results: chess helps children to do better in school and in life.
Chess can even improve children's social skills. According to Joyce Brown, an educator at the Roberto Clemente School in New York, "Our studies have shown that incidents of suspension and outside altercations have decreased by at least 60 percent since these children became interested in chess.''
About the book:
Chess is Child's Play - Teaching Techniques That Work
by Laura Sherman and Bill Kilpatrick
ISBN: 978-1936277315
Publisher: Mongoose Press
Date of publish: April 16, 2012
Pages: 304
S.R.P.: $19.95
About the authors:
Laura Sherman, a.k.a. "Laura the Friendly Ghostwriter," is a professional ghostwriter and author. She enjoys writing fiction and nonfiction and is happiest when juggling multiple projects.
She recently authored Chess is Child's Play to introduce the next generation to the game of kings and queens. As a parent of three, and having been one of the top 50 women chess players in the United States, Laura wrote this book to teach any parent to teach any child, of any age, to play chess.
Laura lives with her family in Florida, where she spends her spare time at the beach and writing haiku, the Japanese art of short poetry.
Bill Kilpatrick became a serial-entrepreneur by creating many successful business ventures. He developed advanced chess skills at an early age playing game after game with his mother, father, and sisters. In high school Bill coached his own team, and as a crew of underdogs they swiftly rose to become a dominant force winning the Florida state and southeastern U.S. championships. He took the knowledge that was given to him as a young man, and returned it to others by building businesses that each have a common theme of teaching or coaching diverse skills. The ventures include acting, business management, software development, creative writing, and of course chess.
His passion is to take a specific skill; then he keeps digging down more and more deeply toward the root or foundation until the true core of the subject becomes crystal clear. From that core he progressively works back upwards, laying down a direct route that is very easy for others to travel. His forte is building paths, then roads, and finally super-highways of educational techniques to help others master important life skills.
