Hi Ed,
I had a bit of an experience just tonight with kids. I was doing a sketch of the Moon earlier tonight. My son came out to be with dad after a while and asked to see the Moon. I try to always mention some feature or other to them - most boys have a fascination with volcanoes and the Moon has plenty of these. He then pointed out Jupiter and asked to see it. The little bloke, on his first squiz of Jupiter scores the Great Red Spot AND a shadow transit! Took me years for my first score! And next a look at Sirius.
What I'm getting at is he showed some interest in what I was doing, and I made the scope his own. I had the chance to engage with his curiosity, and I dropped what I was doing. Yeah I was in the middle of a sketch, but the chance to engage with him was more important.
When my camera failed with the Girl Guides night, instead of stuffing around with reverting my scope to visual, I saw a chance of engaging with the young folk by talking to them, and answering their questions, on what ever topic that conversation followed and influenced. All I had in my hand was a laser to point out things in the sky that as naked eye objects offered examples or illustration. Yes, I was fortunate that there were 10 other scopes in action, but that was what the opportunity allowed for,
On both occasions it was engaging with people at where their immediate curiosity. No agenda other than sharing and learning - by both parties!
Just some insight.
Alex.