Clubbing Baby Seals Sustainably

First game while fully based and fully painted.

This past Thursday, my army was volunteered to play the youngest member of the league and his Orks.  To clarify, we're talking about someone who's voice hasn't quite changed yet.  This posed a question that I don't think I've ever had to answer in war gaming.    How do you play a kid?

My opponent had an OK grasp on the basic rules, but it was certainly not complete and tended towards giving him an advantage.  For example, he assaulted out of his Trukk after moving it, then informed me in the next round that it had an 'Ard Case so it wasn't open-topped and I wouldn't add one to my damage roll (sidenote: turns out Trukks can't even have 'Ard Cases).  Movement was spotty, with models starting behind the tape and ending pretty clearly past six inches.  Rulings on cocked dice seemed based around whether they might fall on success or failure.      

I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because he's young.  This is especially the case when recalling myself at that age.  I suppose the question posed is how best to respond.  If I let things slide, it'll reinforce mistaken notions about rules.  If I correct him too often, I might come off as nitpicking or exploiting his lack of knowledge, and ending up only discouraging him.  I ended up taking a middle road, letting the dice and movement slide, but reminding him about things like assaulting closest models to closest, and then showing him the best way to position his models in the movement phase to get the match-ups he wanted.

The beautiful city board.

Tactically, I played a little looser than normal.  I committed Logan's unit early, allowing him a chance to counter charge with multiple mobs.  Unfortunately, he didn't capitalize on my "mistakes", choosing instead to bring his reserves in on the other side of the board.  For the most part, his units were falling off the board on their own as non-horde Orks tend to do.  I did walk a unit of Nobz off the board by leaving a unit just within six inches of them.  Honestly, I felt like a heel doing it, but I tried to make it a point of learning, telling him to remember how to do it for when he played his dad's Marines.  That didn't make me feel better.  At the same time, I've never been a fan of "letting them win."  I've always tried to get better by playing against people that are better than me.

The game turned out to be one-sided, and my opponent was visibly frustrated.  I tried to make a few suggestions regarding wargear (power klaws over big choppas) and tactics (using bait units and how to bring numbers to bear), and told him to stay positive, but I can't help but worry I had a negative impact on his hobby.  Obviously, it's important to me for opponents to enjoy themselves, even when they're having a rough game.  In this case though, what's the most sporting way to play someone so young?  How do you help them along while not taking it overly easy on them?  And how do you ensure that they have a good time, so they'll stick around to become full grown seals?