"Introducing your son to wargaming and war movies" Topic

Ok chaps, what age to start the little man? He's 5.

He plays with 1/32 airfix soldiers and my old wooden fort (constructed by grandad circa 1974) but when to start with rules proper?

And war films? Any tips on when to start and which ones to start with? I don't want to frighten the little blighter like I did when he was about a year old and we watched the Battle of Britsin during feeding times when mum was away.

Cheers

I have a 4 yo son, and a 21 yo, and I think 5 is a bit young for war movies. Older son started to get into things around 7 or 8, and the LOTR trilogy came out across his pre-teen years which he lapped up and then started with all the figure sets of same while still commandeering my old Airfix armies for historicals. Every kid is different.

At 5 he should be rolling marbles at plastic soldiers or firing matchsticks from Dinky toy guns. What about the wooden wars set of games, they seem to be along the same lines.

Playing with toy soldiers seems to be a harmless pastime, but I would suggest that watching war movies is quite another scenario, with all the gory details revealed.
However, all films have an age-related suitability rating applied, do they not?
Why not follow that as a general guide?

Battle of Britain would be one of the few I've shown my own 4 and 2.5 year old.
Valiant isn't too bad a kid film set during the war. Is rubbish for adults.

He's ripe for Star Wars though, my own boys are obsessed with Star Wars because of it and the dvd "Star Wars a musical journey". Towards the end of next year I'll show then A New Hope.

The article series film nerd 2.0 is excellent reading on introducing films to kids, emphasis on genre films.
link

My daughter wrote her first set of rules at the age of 6 (okay, she came up with the concept, I wrote them down!). Now she is 8 we play a very basic game of Adventure in the Lost Lands. She loves games with dinosaurs and 28mm pulp figures, but has no interest in anything military.

My 21 year old son has never been interested in gaming, aside from on the PC. The only soldiers he liked to play with were digital. That is my mistake, as at the time I had no idea how addictive computers could be (probably because I have a non-digital hobby). The key is to get your son interested in "3D gaming" before the computer steals him from you!

Have a look at 'Little Wars' (H G Wells) as a starter, not much advanced from what he's doing now. It's how I started, admittedly I was about 7, but that was when wargames was in it's infancy

Let him make his own decision to wargame or not and respect his choice. If he wants to play wargames with you, he will ask you when he is ready. My own son is not really interested in what I do and I have never made him play a game under the guise of "try it you might like it". His interests are far different from mine as much as mine were of my fathers. I have a mate who's two sons and two daughters both game and make model kits, but it was their personal choice, (although I sometimes wonder if it may have been at gun point). I have another friend that tried to "over encourage" his son to play and it ended in tears. You will find that kids these days are far more into instant gratification which is supplied easily via a console or a PC. Where as us wargamers come from a time where delayed gratification was the norm. We learned to wait for things with patience, mainly out of necessity. In my experience it's near impossible to get a fifteen year old to read anything as long as this post, let alone trawl through a wargaming rule book. If you want to play a game with your son, come down to his level and buy a game appropriate for his age group. Games like Hungry Hippos, Snakes and Ladders or Snap are what comes to mind, these are the games you probably played when you were 5.

As for war movies he really doesn't need that kind of stimulus until he is much much older. 5 year olds should be playing with Legos in front of a TV whilst watching the Wiggles and Sesame Street. We really should let our kids be kids not little adults, just because we are too impatient for them to grow up faster, does not mean they can or should. Also I personaly think Star Wars is still too old for 5 year olds to watch. You will have plenty of opportunity to do grown up stuff with your kids, have some patience and just let them grow up at their own speed, not yours.
Sorry for sounding like a wowser, but I'm seeing this discussion from hind site, and where I was myself 11 years ago, I thought it would be cool for my son to watch The Thunderbirds at the age of 4 and it was a stupid, stupid mistake.

My four year old boys (five next month) have seen (and enjoyed) the Star Wars films and Indiana Jones (not the couple of scary bits) but I wouldn't show them a war film yet. We play lots of games together, but not wargames for a couple of years I expect. One game they like is this Lord of The Rings Game: link
This is good as there are some decisions to be made as to which path to go on, it introduces them to LOTR characters and it has some wargamey mechanics (need to hit a baddie a certain number of times to defeat them).
When I do start wargaming with them, the games I expect to play with them at first are Song of Blades and Heroes (probably using LOTR figures), then maybe try Memoir'44.

My son is 5 and we play Dust Tactics and star wars x wing….with some help with reading and good moves to try….

My son used to arrange my Warhammer stuff into huge tea parties, as he called them but after this very brief flicker of interest it was just football, football and more football. LOL

I think he is too young for war movies. Maybe he can watch "Rat Patrol" episodes in a couple of years. Most five year old kids aren't interested in rules, other than rolling marbles or throwing cotton balls at the other side.

WATERLOO! I was 11, never looked back, it didn't help that War and Peace was broadcast the following year in three four parts? That did it for me. Dad insisted I watch, I ate it up like a pig in a 4H club. Thennnnn the BBC did war and peace in like 11 hours w/ Anthony Hopkins. A very very young Anthony Hopkins. Early 70s was a boom for the great ogre of Europe in cinema.

Post script, this began my affinity for all things Russian…….read war and peace for the first time at the age of 13 in 1972

Star Wars comes down to whether they can understand it. I was taken to the cinema at age 4.5 to see it, and I can only vaguely remember the start and the final death star battle. I've such a love for Star Wars that I'm definitely saving it to share with my sons once they can comprehend the story, my post got weirded up but I had mentioned that SW Rebels is very popular in my home right now and its a great incubator amd entry point for 4 + year olds for seeing the films.

Real steps I'm taking to give my kids the best shot at enjoying wargaming with me is to make sure they enjoy and want to be in my company. I make a big effort to be a part of my kids play and media time, which means I put up with watching Peppa Pig and picking flowers in the garden (cheers Mr Bloom), along with watching Rebels and Superhero Squad and kicking a soccer ball around. Over time they'll assume that whatever I'm doing will be something they will enjoy, and then when the time is right I'll take the first steps introducing wargaming.

I think all things war will sooner or later entice many young people and they will explore it at their own pace. They will in time learn the horrors and effects that war has on all those involved. From a film perspective,"To Hell and back" Audie Murphy is a softer intro into separation and loss than perhaps the more graphic, Saving Private Ryan.
As a parent I can only prepare them for the life trials that lie ahead. As a child my own experiences were of Viet-Nam on the news supported by John Wayne on a Sunday.

We've played some simplified 40K and he's played Unity of Command on my laptop.

No war movies yet though he watches those "Greatest Tank Battle" shows on netflix and enjoys those.

The kind of warmovies I like, are not appropriate for a 7 year old in any way or form.

My dad gave me a load of Airfix Waterloo French and British figures when I was around 5. I happily played with these(unpainted of course) until maybe 8-9. I then started playing System 7 with Dad around maybe 10-11….

And here I am at 39 still playing Napoleonics. Have not done much else in terms of Eras/periods.

For young kids … Star wars x wing and the new d&d attack wing would be viable options. Straightforward rules with relatively easy mechanics.

As for movies, as already suggested use the rating system.

Laura started with "Battle of the Bulge" when she as 11 months old (I'l never forget her pounding the TV screen and laughing as Robert Shaw's tank was burnt up by the rolling fuel drums – I worry about that girl)

She wrote her first set of rules when she was 7. Someone quipped today that they were cribbed as the basis for Bolt Action :)

My kids like X-Wing and Heroquest.

Ratings are a starting point but honestly, if you're a parent, you'll know what your kids can and cannot handle.

Justin,

My suggestion is he is pretty young yet to hold any interest for long before wandering off to annoy his sister/mum/the dog etc, but, when your mates are around for a game, and he shows an interest in whats happening for a few mins, get him to throw the dice for you instead of you throwing them. Then if he starts to ask questions, ask his opinion on what those blue and red guys over there should do.

Dont complicate it but calling them lancers etc, they are blue and red guys, and those ones over there are white and green.

I hope over the coming years he does show an interest. My 2 boys (now 27 and 29) have shown zero interest in my hobbie sadly, and theres no one to pass on wee fellas on to when that time comes :(

My son aged nine has finished watching series one of "Dads Army". He enjoyed it even though some of the jokes are dated. But persons in charge behaving silly will amuse at any level. It is a good introduction to the subject that few could match.

Regards
Allan

Ok chaps, what age to start the little man? He's 5.

I have to agree with some of other posts here. Not every child will want to follow in a father's footsteps My father tried to get me interested in model trains, starting with Thomas the Tank Engine and basic HO train sets, but I found myself drawn towards the model airplanes and AFVs in the back of the hobby shops. Watching Kelly's Heroes on cable sealed the deal for me.

Good point Rebelyell. My dad was determined that we'd all (4 brothers)be keen on model railways…I still detest them more than 50 years later.

My 8 year old daughter has shown more interest than her little brother. He just wants to play with lego. Though the one time we tried to have a game (with no rules) she suggested "it would be nicer if all the soldiers left their guns behind as fighting would only ruin all those pretty uniforms".

My four were between five and ten, and were collecting those small plastic pokemon figures. And playing imaginary games and making stories with them. So when they asked if they could join me at figure painting at the kitchen table, I said yes. Gave them some brushes, some paint and some older figures they thought would be neat to paint. One daughter painted a whole bunch of fluorescent skeletons.

They are now 20-24, still have all their painted figures, play mostly computer games but yesterday spent four hours with me playing 'Merchant of Venus' (highly recommend, btw). And they use their figures sometimes while playing D&D or some variant. I figure you grab them at whatever point of interest they have for whichever part of the hobby it might be. And go from there.

And they're making noises about playing Wings of War this afternoon. Playing WoW with a gaggle of 20 something daughters is hysterically funny. Can't wait.

The boy and I started with Mordheim when he was 8. The girl (2 1/2 years younger than the boy) started with basic D&D at 7. If you handle the rules and just have the kids calling actions and rolling dice it is easier.

The boy is now 15 and we have an on-going 40k campaign that he is responsible for generating the narrative; I do the points stuff. The girl is 12 and we both play in a friend's steampunk game run with Hero system rules.

We also have an occasional 3e D&D game with the wife and kids that I run.

The family that games together, stays together.

My oldest is 4. I bought him some basic acw figures. Green men, Irish brigade. He "paints" his when I paint mine. Acw soldiers in his army have a rainbow of uniforms but he is having fun.

We play with them by shooting nerf darts at them as they attack us.

The only "war movie" he has seen was a few clips from the 1950s Knights of the Round Table movie. The fight scenes in that movie are more like us shooting darts at our little men. I just told him the guys in the movie were playing soldier with each other. He liked the cavalry charge. Don't know if his mom was too thrilled with me but a little light war fighting cant hurt. Heck we have nerf swords that my one year old wields like a viking warrior. I get attacked every day. Its hilarious

My son and I started watching Rat Patrol episodes on Netflix when he was 5 or 6 then moved on to Battle of Britain and The Longest Day a year or so later. He's 12 now and we game once a month or so now. As for movies we still try to shield him a bit. I did take him to see Fury last night. Great film but a bit of a downer for him. I wouldn't recommend it for kids under 15-16.

As for games we play 40k, some Robogear and a few board games.

Most of the older war movies were not detailed or gory. I would start with those but the best answer is to preview before you watch with him, and then use it as a great point for discussions.

Not saying this is right but ini much of the world there is no need to wonder when you expose him to war movies, they live in the middle of it. Sometimes in modern western nations we want to water things down. On the other hand I have tried to keep my children as innocent as possible as long as possible.

In the long run you and your wife must come into agreement about raising your children. Both my parents believed that letting boys play w toy Soldiers and toy guns would make boys into militarists- so they did not let me. I grew up to spend 30 years in the U.S. Army as an Airborne Ranger- now my parents want to ensure that I let my boys play with the same toys I was forbidden from.

Thank you chaps, there's some really good suggestions here.
Marbles, Valiant, Greatest Tank Battles on Youtube (he's watched excerpts from Zulu and the cavalry charges from Waterloo, Young Winston and Charge of the LB dozens of times!).

He's fascinated by a wargaming table set up with all the troops and wanders into the room wide eyed when my mates are round for a game. I do get him to throw the dice and he's pretty good!

I must have been the only kid in UK in 1977 never to watch Star Wars. Bridge too Far, Iron Cross etc were more my thing – in fact I never saw SW until the mid 90s re-release. So X-Wing and all that sci-fi stuff I might save as a last resort only.