Would you teach openings kids with 1 -2 years experience in chess?

We plan on doing a chess course for getting them on some base level. We have about 16 hours and wonder how do structure the course. For example to include chess openings like the Italian or ...

thanks

Yeah, definitely teach some openings, but more like a survey of common ones, and nothing in depth (at least as far as moves).

For example after 1.e4 I'd introduce maybe 6 or 8 openings (Spanish, Italian, Sicilian, Scotch, French, Caro, Pirc) and just show 3-5 moves deep for each. Then for the most common ones (lets say Spanish and Sicilian) I'd show an illustrative GM game.

IMO they should know some names to be able to identify what's going on, but beyond that that instruction should tie the opening to middlegame ideas.

For example make the model sicilian game the dragon variation and talk about how black attacks the queenside while white attacks the kingside.

And then the same for 1.d4 like QGD, QGA, Nimzo, Catalan, Slav, QID, KID and have illustrative game(s) for two different types of QGD games (minority attack in the orthodox structure and then maybe a Cambridge Springs or Catalan type game).

I think you could do ~1 hour for 1.e4 and ~1 hour for 1.d4 this way.

I guess it depends on how much the kids know too. You say 1 to 2 years but that doesn't mean a lot. They could be total beginners in terms of chess knowledge.

Anyway, I guess the alternative would be to try and give them a simple repertoire, like the scotch gambit or london or something like this. I wouldn't recommend that for a few reasons, but sometimes that's useful for example you want the kids to win some school tournament in 1 year, then ok, maybe give them some basic repertoire. But if it's general education with long term grown in mind (5 to 10 years) then I'd focus on the Spanish and QGD and instead of giving them a repertoire focus on how the opening relates to middlegame ideas and pawn structures.

Also, of course, opening instruction shouldn't be given as much time as most other areas.

Anyway, hope I gave you some ideas, good luck.

It might be of interest to look at the table of contents of A COMPLETE CHESS COURSE by Antonio Gude: "... 3 Openings and Basic Principles 33 ... 4 Putting Your Pieces to Work 52 ... 5 Strategy and Tactics 76 ... 6 Endgame Play and Further Openings 106 … 7 Combinations and Tactical Themes 128 ... 8 Attacking Play 163 ... 9 Your First Opening Repertoire 194 …"
http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/A_Complete_Chess_Course.pdf