So a bit of background here, my stepdaughter is 7 yrs old and received her first BB gun for Christmas and we have been waiting for the weather to turn to go outside and start range training. We also got four of the nerf type foam dart guns (6 shot manual). We've applied range rules to even the toy guns for the last year to get her used to handling properly.
Last week I graduated her to simulated "live-fire" training. In short, if you have ever played paintball, you may have encountered a scenario called Fox & Hound. Essentially, the fox goes and hides, and then the hounds are sent in to hunt them down. The fox has to try to stay alive and take out the hounds if possible. Well, she is a bit early in to have too many hounds after her so I made it a 1 on 1. Basically using the same rules for Hide and Seek. The hound counts and the fox runs and hides inside the house somewhere, trying to set up an ambush spot. After every round, we talk through what the fox did wrong and right as well as the hound.
Making this into a variant of hide and seek really got her into it. From this I was able to teach her about the differences of hiding and setting up an ambush point, line of sight, movement, fall back positions, and room clearing techniques.
So I had just explained to her about movement and she did not HAVE to stay in one spot, and that movement was life. I was expecting this to have to be re-iterated a few times before she caught on. But to my surprise, this happened in the next round with her as the fox.
She hid and I came out of the living room, first clearing the kitchen, and falling back to the living room to start clearing the dining room (main floor is a U shape with opening into each room). I cleared the entrance of the dining room and started heading for the stairways up and down to begin clearing there. As I was nearing the stairs, I received a foam dart directly to the middle of my back. I whipped around and there stood a smiling little girl already reloading for the next shot and heading for concealment. She had started in the dining room and had snuck into the kitchen as I was withdrawing, and snuck around behind me as I was clearing everything in front of me. Needless to say, I wasn't properly watching my six. Getting a one-up on Daddy like that gave her a huge confidence boost and has made her eager for more.
I called the range cold and we started walking through what we did right and wrong. I spared myself nothing and told her flat out what I did wrong, and we started piecing together all of her actions and what she did right. I was a proud Daddy that day and we are looking forward to more fox & hound.
Anyone else uses methods like this to teach tactics to their kids?
Last week I graduated her to simulated "live-fire" training. In short, if you have ever played paintball, you may have encountered a scenario called Fox & Hound. Essentially, the fox goes and hides, and then the hounds are sent in to hunt them down. The fox has to try to stay alive and take out the hounds if possible. Well, she is a bit early in to have too many hounds after her so I made it a 1 on 1. Basically using the same rules for Hide and Seek. The hound counts and the fox runs and hides inside the house somewhere, trying to set up an ambush spot. After every round, we talk through what the fox did wrong and right as well as the hound.
Making this into a variant of hide and seek really got her into it. From this I was able to teach her about the differences of hiding and setting up an ambush point, line of sight, movement, fall back positions, and room clearing techniques.
So I had just explained to her about movement and she did not HAVE to stay in one spot, and that movement was life. I was expecting this to have to be re-iterated a few times before she caught on. But to my surprise, this happened in the next round with her as the fox.
She hid and I came out of the living room, first clearing the kitchen, and falling back to the living room to start clearing the dining room (main floor is a U shape with opening into each room). I cleared the entrance of the dining room and started heading for the stairways up and down to begin clearing there. As I was nearing the stairs, I received a foam dart directly to the middle of my back. I whipped around and there stood a smiling little girl already reloading for the next shot and heading for concealment. She had started in the dining room and had snuck into the kitchen as I was withdrawing, and snuck around behind me as I was clearing everything in front of me. Needless to say, I wasn't properly watching my six. Getting a one-up on Daddy like that gave her a huge confidence boost and has made her eager for more.
I called the range cold and we started walking through what we did right and wrong. I spared myself nothing and told her flat out what I did wrong, and we started piecing together all of her actions and what she did right. I was a proud Daddy that day and we are looking forward to more fox & hound.
Anyone else uses methods like this to teach tactics to their kids?
