Programming for my kids
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How do I start my two daughters on programming - their ages are 11 and 8. The elder one knows how to browse the Internet. Long back, when I started with Fortran IV, it was pretty easy. But now, where to start? I think it should be C (leaving pointers aside), but give your thoughts. - Amarnath
I started with C. I feel it is a good starting place for high level languages. You could even start them on C#. I'm not particularly fond of it, but i think it would make a reasonable starting place by reducing some of the learning curve.
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My eleven years old son's love programming game with RPG Game Maker. It's a programming language build in .NET. It's allow kids to program RPG game using pre-defined objects. Since he programs with Game Maker, my son knows how variables, events, loops, objects, bitmaps, sounds, etc works. I recommend it to everyone!
A great place to start is Scratch http://scratch.mit.edu/ . It is a visual programming language developed by MIT that consists of stacking objects that look like Legos to create your program flow. My 9 year old son has been programming in it for 2 years and loves it. It is great for teaching them the visualization and logic needed to program in any language. There is a website dedicated to sharing your programs with others and getting feedback.
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How do I start my two daughters on programming - their ages are 11 and 8. The elder one knows how to browse the Internet. Long back, when I started with Fortran IV, it was pretty easy. But now, where to start? I think it should be C (leaving pointers aside), but give your thoughts. - Amarnath
I faced the same problem about a year ago with my 12-year-old and 9-year-old. Programming with C was too daunting for them. Too much to learn before they could do anything useful. Look for a program called Scratch. It was developed by MIT to stimulate interest in programming in children. I am pretty critical of programming tools, but Scratch is an impressive achievement. It is also free. It allows kids to become familiar with variables, if-else, loops while doing it in a drag-and-drop format so that the kids don't get bogged down in syntax. I would highly recommend it. My kids did all sorts of animated movies and games. It has a lot of pre-packaged routines for animations and graphics, all of which are graphical. You can find it at http://scratch.mit.edu/
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what about the lego robot stuff.
This signature was proudly tested on animals.
Maximilien wrote:
what about the lego robot stuff.
Agreed. Start with the visual programming language for the NXT, then move to a c-based language: NXC. There are dozens of NXT programming invironments out there, for all sorts of languages. NXT-G, C, Java, etc. It's a great plave to start. Have a nice day, ~Sidneys1
Always trying to help, Sidneys1
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How do I start my two daughters on programming - their ages are 11 and 8. The elder one knows how to browse the Internet. Long back, when I started with Fortran IV, it was pretty easy. But now, where to start? I think it should be C (leaving pointers aside), but give your thoughts. - Amarnath
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How do I start my two daughters on programming - their ages are 11 and 8. The elder one knows how to browse the Internet. Long back, when I started with Fortran IV, it was pretty easy. But now, where to start? I think it should be C (leaving pointers aside), but give your thoughts. - Amarnath
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Amarnath S wrote:
Long back, when I started with Fortran IV
Getting a character, number or word to appear on screen felt like the most powerful thing you had ever done, it was magic. Right?
Amarnath S wrote:
The elder one knows how to browse the Internet
She is less likely to be impressed by the scenario above. What I believe you have to do is find a language that will give pretty near instantaneous, visually interesting, results, with very little coding. The oooooh, shiny factor. Whilst at the same time enabling the use of the various coding constructs. In my opinion that language ain't C, and certainly not C++. Although C or C# would be what I would move them onto next. I regret that I have no suggestion about a starting language, since I have no dealings with children of that sort of age I have not kept up with the newer educational theories. Out of interest, I googled good programming language for child and the first three hits were for something called Scratch, which I've never heard of.
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
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How do I start my two daughters on programming - their ages are 11 and 8. The elder one knows how to browse the Internet. Long back, when I started with Fortran IV, it was pretty easy. But now, where to start? I think it should be C (leaving pointers aside), but give your thoughts. - Amarnath
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How do I start my two daughters on programming - their ages are 11 and 8. The elder one knows how to browse the Internet. Long back, when I started with Fortran IV, it was pretty easy. But now, where to start? I think it should be C (leaving pointers aside), but give your thoughts. - Amarnath
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How do I start my two daughters on programming - their ages are 11 and 8. The elder one knows how to browse the Internet. Long back, when I started with Fortran IV, it was pretty easy. But now, where to start? I think it should be C (leaving pointers aside), but give your thoughts. - Amarnath
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How do I start my two daughters on programming - their ages are 11 and 8. The elder one knows how to browse the Internet. Long back, when I started with Fortran IV, it was pretty easy. But now, where to start? I think it should be C (leaving pointers aside), but give your thoughts. - Amarnath
We teach a gaming camp that uses the XNA C# component with middle school age kids. They understand it and do really well. I would suggest going to creators.xna.com and trying some of the tutorials. They are very good. The best part is that our kids get to upload the games to their xbox and impress all their friends! --Regina
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How do I start my two daughters on programming - their ages are 11 and 8. The elder one knows how to browse the Internet. Long back, when I started with Fortran IV, it was pretty easy. But now, where to start? I think it should be C (leaving pointers aside), but give your thoughts. - Amarnath
I would consider "SCRATCH". (http://info.scratch.mit.edu/About\_Scratch) Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create and share Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. Scratch is available free of charge...
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My eleven years old son's love programming game with RPG Game Maker. It's a programming language build in .NET. It's allow kids to program RPG game using pre-defined objects. Since he programs with Game Maker, my son knows how variables, events, loops, objects, bitmaps, sounds, etc works. I recommend it to everyone!
What is the URL for the RPG Game Maker? I don't find a product exactly matching that title in a search query. I see a couple RPG Maker products and a Game Maker, which my son also uses, but it's not exclusively for RPGs. And it's not based on .NET either.
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You're skipping a step. You start by finding out if they have any enthusiasm for it and if not, looking for ways to fire that curiosity and passion in them. Without an eager desire on their part, it's just drudgery no different than scraping an old coat of paint off the back fence. In such a case, there is no language or technology on the planet that will make a difference. Once they're interested, however, the rest comes easily.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Got a career question? Ask the Attack Chihuahua!
Couldn't agree more! Pretty much all the responses are of the form "I think this language is great, and {not very hard (Basic/Logo) | hard but important for learning basic computer science concepts (C/assembly/...)}". Kids need to discover and choose for themselves what they want to learn. When my parents got me a C64 as a child, I never really took to the (awful) Basic implementation that came on the machine - at best, a few sprite programs got typed in but nothing really 'clicked'. Then when I asked them to buy me an Atari ST years later, I stumbled upon the great, structured GFA Basic and loved it immediately. I'd say you should pick a selection of 5 or 6 candidates which differ wildly from each other but satisfy your needs in some way (e.g. Logo, Scheme, Basic, C#, ...) and have a chat with your kids, show them the 99-bottles-of-beer source for each. Let them pick.
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How do I start my two daughters on programming - their ages are 11 and 8. The elder one knows how to browse the Internet. Long back, when I started with Fortran IV, it was pretty easy. But now, where to start? I think it should be C (leaving pointers aside), but give your thoughts. - Amarnath
I downloaded Scratch and played with it. Wonderful!! A pity that we did'nt have such a thing when we were kids. A real tool to sparkle the creativity of kids. Thank you, MIT, for developing it and offering it for free. Thanks to all the contributors for this thread, for all the suggestions. - Amarnath
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How do I start my two daughters on programming - their ages are 11 and 8. The elder one knows how to browse the Internet. Long back, when I started with Fortran IV, it was pretty easy. But now, where to start? I think it should be C (leaving pointers aside), but give your thoughts. - Amarnath
I looked through the thread and did not see any reference to the Alice project. This is a free download and is designed to be a first introduction to object oriented programming. It has a nice GUI and you can relatively quickly get your kids writing their first app. check it out at http://www.alice.org.
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C seems pretty tough. something like BASIC or Logo would be much better. the first step, IMO, should be getting used to the idea of controlling the computer through simple instructions. then add IFs and FOR/WHILE loops, etc.. ideas like structured programming and function calls and data types can come later.
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What is the URL for the RPG Game Maker? I don't find a product exactly matching that title in a search query. I see a couple RPG Maker products and a Game Maker, which my son also uses, but it's not exclusively for RPGs. And it's not based on .NET either.
You are right. There are 2 products: "RPG Maker" and "Game Maker". My son too uses Game Maker . The best description is on the Web site:
Using easy to learn drag-and-drop actions, you can create professional looking games within very little time. You can make games with backgrounds, animated graphics, music and sound effects, and even 3D games! And when you've become more experienced, there is a built-in programming language, which gives you the full flexibility of creating games with Game Maker. What is best, is the fact that Game Maker can be used free of charge.
In fact, the programming language is Game Maker script (GMK) and it's a very good graphical learning language. -
How do I start my two daughters on programming - their ages are 11 and 8. The elder one knows how to browse the Internet. Long back, when I started with Fortran IV, it was pretty easy. But now, where to start? I think it should be C (leaving pointers aside), but give your thoughts. - Amarnath
Alice.org teaches OO Programming by letting you manipulate a 3D world. They are sponges and will absorb and intuitively grasp the concept of inheritance and object properties.
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Alice Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.