can anyone help? I am currently teaching primary kids the basics of the game and some of them are progressing nicely. However can anyone point me in the right direction as I need materials to teach the basics and a little further. I have chessbase and would ideally like materials though this medium. Does chessbase sell anything targeted towards kids and beginners
Might be worth dropping Peter Woods an email and see what he has
I would really recommend How to Beat Your Dad at Chess - its a real classic for tactics (depends how good the kids are though - its a fair bit harder than forks and pins and that kind of stuff - definitely not one move tactics but its not all that advanced either). If I was to give a rough number of elo points for each chess book I have, that one would get a very sizeable chunk of them. Think NEJCA has got a small selection of references and a pretty good overview on its website under the Training link.
The three levels of Fritz and Chesster (Chessbase shop link above) are widely recommended.
If the use of non-digital resources is an option you might take a look at
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.chesskids.com/library11.htm">http://www.chesskids.com/library11.htm</a><!-- m -->
This is some of the best instructional material I've seen. Chapter headings such as 'Space Invaders', 'The Double Freddie', 'The Queen's Lunch Break', 'Fried Liver - It's Offal for Black', etc, give some indication of the flavour. I regularly used these Chesskids lessons when teaching in the Far East and found them particularly suitable for children in the 9-11 age group.
All the material is currently available free of charge though donations are welcomed.