My wife works at the local middle school, and yesterday one of the sixth-grade teachers asked her to ask me to come in and perform some yoyo tricks for her class. The teacher also plans to give each student a yoyo. As someone who manages to combine a very busy schedule with an inclination to laziness, the first thought that popped in my mind was “Hells no!”, but then I immediately thought of this thread, and I felt compelled to spread the word of yo. I told the teacher I would do it, but that I wanted my presentation to be focused on teaching the kids how to use their new yoyos. She was delighted to hear this. I also talked her out of going to the local Walmart and buying Duncan Imperials, which had been her plan since she’ll be paying for the yoyos out of her own pocket. I told her I’m going to work on getting some yoyos that are easier to use for beginners, and at a decent price. I’m nervous since I’ve never taught anyone how to yoyo before, and I don’t frequently yoyo in front of other people, but I’m also excited to do this. Once I develop my plan, I’ll post it in a separate thread and ask for your feedback. I’d like to thank all of you, since it was your passion that helped inspire me to say yes.
Get a hold of Andre here at YYE, or @yyfben2.deactivated or Tyler at Recess. The YYF Spinstar, One, OneStar and the Recess First Base are all great yoyos to get kids going on.
I’m also looking at the YYF Whip. I’ve never used it, but it’s super cheap and has good reviews here on the YYE site.
YYF Whips or Duncan Butterfly XTs would be a good beginner choice with the best ease of use to cost ratio. These are also available in a lot of stores.
Having tried most of the really cheap ones, I personally prefer the Whip to the Spinstar or One, but they all do the job perfectly. If you order a big collection of a bunch of them, each kid can pick one that looks cool to them 
I did a demo/teaching session for a pre-school class once and we used Duncan Imperials, but it was kind of important that the kids not be able to disassemble and lose the bearings in that case.
I like the Butterfly XT once it’s been tuned but right out of the package the response could be anywhere from nicely responsive to barely semi-responsive. Not really fair to new players to expect them to do the tuning required to get it to behave nicely.
I’d recommend the Spinstar for teaching. Really easy to learn on, responds well, sleeps long enough for beginner tricks, and pretty cheap. We recently got a bunch of them in bulk (unpackaged) for clubs/schools etc. Not sure exact pricing yet, but send me a PM if you’re interested and we can discuss details.
PM sent, thanks!
I’d probably give it all to YoTricks and Tyler Severance to help fund their school and community center visits. They are far more capable of using the money to improve yoyo popularity than me.
This all came together a lot quicker than I anticipated, and I ended up teaching yoyo to the class today. Based on Garrett’s advice I used YYF Spinstars and they worked great. I used one almost exclusively all week and it got me back into responsive play. The kids had a lot of fun playing with their new yoyos and I had a lot of fun teaching them how to throw. At the end of the class I handed out copies of the trick list from here on the YYE site, so hopefully one or more of the students will eventually find André’s tutorials. This experience has reinforced to me the sentiment expressed by several posters above that getting yoyos in the hands of kids and teaching them how to throw is an essential component for increasing the popularity of yoyos in the future.
Yay kiddos!
I am about this. My son’s name is Ness.
That’s great to hear, dude!
Super happy that you introduced some youngins to our hobby. Hopefully a couple of them stick with it and become a part of the community.
Congrats on a successful teaching session. Very cool of you to donate your time and money to put some smiles on some faces. Mine included.
Cheers
Start a Yoyo Community Foundation.
Leave my Yoyo Legacy by investing the $20k into the money markets to generate interest income for as long as the money markets exist.
Utilizing the interest income generated each year, spent on all things aforementioned.
And actively encourage all yoyo manufactures to practice more Philanthropy. Say by giving up to 1% of yearly sales income to the Yoyo Foundation to help grow the base principal amount of money invested. Grow the base principle to a $100k, and so on.
A $100K generating 4% interest income is…$4k per year $4k per yr times 5 is…$20K
The gift that keeps on giving perpetually.
$20k is peanuts for investment interest generating money harvesting. You’d need many millions for that to work.
No…you don’t need millions.
$20K will generate interest income just the same as $100k, just not the same amount at 4%. Same rate of interest.
I know its not enough, but it would be perpetual.
For example, 20k at 4% would take 25years to generate 20K.
Hence…being able to spend $800/yr on all the things aforementioned.
I’m just illustrating a concept that will work.
You asked. I replied.
Yes I’d like to see a million dollars worth of seed money to make this concept happen. I get it.
I can help you with some affordable options.
I bought this clean little Duncan Glow Imperial the other day (still in packaging), and when I turned it over, it reminded me of a great idea:
To put yo-yos in cereal boxes and with rice krispy treats. ?
This was my first ever yo-yo, a Loeb Cola (Coca-Cola knockoff) yo-yo they handed out to me for free at a grocery store when I was 7, and I couldn’t do anything with it for years. Then I turned 10 or 11 and I picked it up again and learned how to get it back to my hand. This sparked me to go to the store and convince my parents to spend $20 on a Yomega Firestorm.
School curriculum not a bad idea. I started yoyoing in part because NED yo presentarion in elementary. That dude had crazy stuff (at the time) and im like YOOOO. But then the school counselor, who I think pulled the strings, showed me his box o stuff. He had all the yo’, flying pandas, he had an always carry 888 and a dv888 in the big box, freehand (my fave) and many many more. You recommended me a ONE, which i still have 5 -6 years later. Then he taught me, and friend i cant find Omar, about yoyoing and this site many years ago. This is whre i bought my first unresponsive yoyo. Lit. Friend did but two shutters lmao, he flexed. I know you are in these forums, i hope, and you know who you are, i give thanks to you. The point is the school helped. Hope you read it
-signed, short kid with pancake hair and his taller buddy with short cut
Slight yikes, but it was gold black splash i believe, he had fire box stuff