Griff Murphey posted:I gave my 12 year old grandson, who was adopted from Ukraine at age 11, an MTH Crescent Limited 4-6-2 and Lionel cars to match. Unfortunately my operating briefing was incomplete. He had a derailment and did the rerail with full power still applied - the ensuing sparks which as we know can be spectacular, scared him and worse, his mom (my daughter) so I doubt it’s been run since. Don’t make my mistake! Be sure you do a full briefing on the nature of electricity. My daughter who grew up around my trains now thinks they are a fire hazard... End of my $400 investment (track, cars, power) not counting the gift of the 4-6-2.
Not only a complete briefing, but often it's helpful after an incident to immediately recreate the incident with the student, and go though the proper steps showing him what to do, maybe laugh a little and put him at ease. If a student has an incident that frightens him, often the best thing is to immediately repeat it and go over it, and let the student understand what to do and be confident and not afraid of what happened. Otherwise, sometimes the student stays scared and won't engage in the activity any more.
