I do the Chess minigame with beginners as well except I don't add other pieces (maybe I should try to experiment with that idea). I am also on the same boat about the transition to actual chess, but I let them play and maybe they'll discover ideas for themselves.
anyone heard of the pawn game?
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adding pieces, such as knights or rooks, progresses the pawn game. one variation i just saw somewhere was allowing pawn promotion. i guess one could experiment with things like randomly selecting what to promote to.... kids at that age seem to really need fun. these are not potential tournament players..... i don't say that disparagingly, i hope. i just want them to get semi-serious about chess, or probably for 99% of them, an exposure.
i use it for teaching 5 to 10 year olds in a library. you start with pawns in their normal positions, and the goal is to get a pawn thru. i can get a kid so he's (or she's) playing in like 5 minutes. we add a piece if they master the pawn moves. for example, we'll add knights in their correct position. To me, as soon as you add a king it's basically chess, and if you add a king and bishop or knight or whatever - that's end game!
i have not figured out exactly how to move from that to full blown chess, which is what many kids want to do (like, immediately, which is ridiculous...)
any suggestions? i get kids COLD, and they just sporadically pop up, since it's at a library. so far kids just can't quite handle practicing tactics, etc. they like just coming in to play a little, but alas don't advance that much....
i'm also wondering --- how many out there mainly teach that age group of total beginners? this is in a poorer area of town - i doubt many of the kids have sets or anything.