Setting goals is important for anyone, including little kids. If your child doesn't have any goals, s/he can stay in the same beginner classes for years without progressing to anywhere. In the meantime, you might be fooled to think that s/he has been having very useful actitivies in chess. Of course, if killing some of his/her idle time with chess is your goal, then you have achieved your goal. But most won't. We want to see that our child become a better person after these extra-curriculum actitivies, including the betterment in chess skill.
How can we tell s/he has been making progress?
Rating is the only objective criteria. Your teacher's comments are definitely subjective and can't compare. Judging by seeing your child winning or losing games can be misleading because we can't track them personally. We may have bias and only remember what we want to remember. Only rating is a cold number. It's not absolutely accurate, but it draws a rough picture.
You child need such an objective target to motivate him working hard. Achieving goals also provides satisfaction and positive feedback. S/he targets higher next time.
http://www.completechesscourse.com/puzzles.html
http://onemovecheckmate.blogspot.com/
How can we tell s/he has been making progress?
Rating is the only objective criteria. Your teacher's comments are definitely subjective and can't compare. Judging by seeing your child winning or losing games can be misleading because we can't track them personally. We may have bias and only remember what we want to remember. Only rating is a cold number. It's not absolutely accurate, but it draws a rough picture.
You child need such an objective target to motivate him working hard. Achieving goals also provides satisfaction and positive feedback. S/he targets higher next time.
http://www.completechesscourse.com/puzzles.html
http://onemovecheckmate.blogspot.com/
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