In order of oldest to youngest:
1 is a girl
2 is a boy
3 is a girl
4 is an infant girl.
Please don’t ask for exact ages. I have some privacy issues to deal with and I know some undesired people are trying to “stalk my backside” for their own amusement. It’s none of you guys. it’s people I know and have chosen to disassociate with. Please, I’d prefer not to go there. It’s rather dark.
2 started sort of to yoyo when I did. 1 started some time later, after I got my Dark Magic. 2 is “more advanced”, but that could change any day now. 1 & 2 both have 4 yoyos. Both have ONE’s. 1 also has a Duncan keychain yoyo(it counts, it plays), a Shinwoo Loop and a Legacy II. 2 has a Raider, brain and a Protostar that he can’t use yet since he can’t bind. Well, neither can bind.
3 has a wooden pegged string yoyo and things she can do tricks with it. I have the same yoyo, but I modified it and it has a cotton string(full length) and she likes that better because she can do more with the string. She can’t even throw it properly. Recently, she lost her yoyo and was using mine. Well, I founds hers and the first thing she does is “throw it” so she can start doing stuff with the string. Her tricks are “Awful Tower”, “Jamaican a Mess” and “Trouble or Nothing”, all requiring a completely dead yoyo to perform.
Here’s the issue. 4 is 11 months old and has been walking a couple of weeks now. She grabbed 2’s Raider and was trying to throw it and was getting angry and frustrated over not being able to work the yoyo.
I have a feeling this is going to be a serious problem.
If your kids are enthusiastic buy them a plastic throw. As a late christmas present. Trick book + a link to the site. Frankly its not a problem because you"ll have more funthrowing with your kids then in a deem light room with yourself and a computer.
Just my 0.02$
3(nearly 3 in age) used her yoyo to beat 2. It had to be taken away for 2 months. She’s stopped using it as a weapon.
Keep in mind, 4 is ALMOST 11 months old.
Oldest child(1) is nearly 8 and I’ve downloaded 36gigs of yoyo videos to the media server for browsing at our convenience(my internet connection is known to get crappy). 1&2 use it quite frequently, although they mostly learn from me. Watching the videos to them is too much like watching TV.
1 and 2 are moving through the YYE “learning program”. As I’ve mentioned, they each have 4 yoyos of their very own.
Oh, and my computer room is very well lit.
The problem is a kid not even a year old already wants to yoyo. It may be she’s seeing the weapon potential and is ready to “level” or perhaps “flatten” the playing field! She was amused/fascinated by the yoyo early on, her eyes fixating on the spinning yoyo.
I’ve got no issue spending money on a plastic throw(Duncan Butterfly, anyone?), but I think one is too young.(11 months!). Might see about getting a BRAIN for 3, and then maybe a ONE. Man, that string is gonna be SHORT!
Well in a housefull of kids and yoyos the other kids, no matter how old, want to emulate each other and of course daddy. So EVERYBODY, except your wife I suppose, wants to yoyo right? Maby not a monster you have created but just an over-enthusiastic yoyoer, hehe. Although she is a bit young to start…but hey if it can work then I say go for it. Just keep an eye on them, witch I am sure you try to do.
At #4’s age, would an Aoda Littles be considered a Full Sized throw? I would worry about what they would do with the string at that point. My 3 yo daughter inherited my old Duncan butterfly and now hounds us to roll the string on it. Then she throws it down. Then it becomes a plastic flail. I think a couple more years for her to wait will be fine.
Yes but its awkward and spin times are reduced. I did that for the science fair. Something about force and gravity and blah blah. But yes it does work.
My preschool son got a couple of really terrible yoyos as favors at birthday parties–the kind that light up the first 2 times you throw them, then fall apart and become choking hazards. So I gave him a Duncan Butterfly. He doesn’t like a short string either. He can’t really return it, so he prefers to do tricks with more string, like “The Crane” and “Under The Bridge”. All his tricks want a dead yoyo too
Hmm, I can demonstrate these if anyone wants to learn them. Then I could start a site called YoyoFool or something, and have a sequence of videos featuring tricks that only a child can do properly!
But anyway, I find that my boy, frustrated at not being able to do a yoyo the way I do, gravitates towards using it for other purposes. He’ll tie the string around stuff, for example, or tape the yoyo to a box to make an art installation.
I notice that my son appears less interested in the yoyo than his schoolmates are. For them it’s a new thing. He sees it every day.
Helping a child to manage the frustration of not being able to throw a sleeper yet is tricky. My only real strategy is to be sensitive to what needs encouragement and what will benefit most from being left alone.
Do your kids come with you when you set up the PA for yoyo contests? I imagine seeing experts throwing can only do good things to their mirror neurons.
I don’t have my kids around when I’m doing events because I can’t babysit them while I do my work. Events are pressure cookers and my system isn’t a DJ “throw it up and hope it works” system, it’s a proper professional sound system.
I haven’t done a yoyo contest yet, so I’m getting my feet wet at CalStates. This shouldn’t be a big deal. I know they’ll be attending as their mother will bring them later. I mean, I’m going to get there at like 6AM or earlier to load in and set for a 9AM start.
True. But the people I don’t want knowing crap don’t know much else as I don’t allow pictures online of them.
Right now I’m dealing with 3 hitting 2 with a plastic hanger and finding scissors(where the heck are they getting scissors from? I thought I got them all…) and cutting her hair. AGAIN(third time this month).
1 got her Legacy IIbrought to her by me at school when I picked her up. 2 got his Raider taken to him at school when I picked him up earlier. 2 is working on Rock The baby. 1 won’t work on much but she does notice the difference between the ONE and the Legacy II. Andre would be proud, as she’s chosen the Legacy II as her “preferred yoyo”. I think she still wants a DM2. We’ll see!
I am going to see how 4 does with a yoyo again tonight.
Kids and yoyos are an amazing mix! My 3 year old niece is obsessed with my Northstar (I let her play with it because it won’t get dinged up). The sad part is that she doesn’t view yoyos as an “up-and-down” the string type toy. She has no idea about traditional yoyo-ing. Generally all she ever does is watch me do 1A type tricks so when she yoyos she ends up just wrapping the string all around her arms and body and swinging the dead yoyo all through the air. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen!
My point is keep creating those monsters! They’re amazing!
(No, I’m serious. The discipline is inconsistent. I was gone for 4 days doing a job and it’s like the kids were allowed to run wild, which they did, and I gotta re-break them as a result.)
