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Shaun,
Have helped lots of Kids look through telescopes - there are a few things you can do that might help that I have used successfully, not necessarily all original ideas.
I organised for my school to use a bunch of microscopes I borrowed in the preceding days, so the kids aged 4-6 could practice looking at some interesting things (bugs and odd things on slides) first.
The idea was to get them used to looking through an eyepiece with one eye and to develop the art of focussing their eye onto a solid object looking right down the optical axis.
The really young ones have trouble even closing one eye and looking through the other - its surprisingly difficult for them to do if they have never tried it before.
They close both eyes, keep both open, close the wrong eye - its fun to watch them go from not seeing a thing due to simple coordination problems to getting the hang of it and seeing the Moon or Saturn.
The reactions and expressions you can get are absolutely priceless.
I was told a neat trick - tell them to think of it as looking down through a straw, this seems to help them get the idea that they only have a limited circle with which to line up their eye and they need to look down into the EP exactly.
BTW it works with adults too !
Get some straws and let them practice
If you have 100 kids to get through, its best that they have had some practice beforehand rather than using up valuable visual time - remembering that they have to go to bed between the hours of 7 and 10pm - earlier for the little ones. So you cant afford to waste much time if you want everyone to get a chance to look at a number of different objects for any reasonable length of time.
Having a stepup ramp is necessary or they will try to use the EP for balance. Hanging onto them so they don't get vertigo on top of a ladder when looking down an eyepiece is not a bad idea - or having a support rail for that purpose.
Also, at least on my system, the focus position for them didnt seem to be the same as for me (I use glasses most of the time for visual).
So you may want to experiment with the focus knob while they are looking and giving feedback about what is best - once they have the hang of it.
Some kids dont seem to get the hang of it easily, but they wont necessarily tell you that they are seeing nothing at all - no reaction tends to mean nothing was seen.
I have sometimes covered one eye with my hand and that has helped - I guess an eye patch could work too for those that cannot close one eye. But I never tried that.
We adults like faint galaxies, nebulae and clusters - the kids tend to not like those much at all, but really love the moon and our two favourite gas giants and seeing their moons.
Splitting doubles and Messier runs would bore them into another hobby for sure !!
Can I ask why you are getting some cheap plossls for them - let them use your best EPs (under supervision)
They should be getting the best views not the worst - IMHO.
All the kids used my Pentax XW's, it was never a problem.
Cheers
Rally
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