Learning programming - 6th grade

[Selumbei]

Why not make it a bit more interesting and have a look at Alice? (http://www.alice.org/[^])

[feanorgem]

The child could get involved with First Lego League www.usfirst.org and preferrably use RoboLab (LabView) for programming. Outside of FLL they can use NQC (for the RCX) or NXC (for the NXT). Also check out www.alice.org Jay

[Selumbei]

Hi Jim, I previously posted this as a response to someone else - sorry - should have replied directly to you. Why not make it a bit more interesting and have a look at Alice? (http://www.alice.org/[^])

[0x3c0]

Whoops. I got a little carried away. :-\

OSDev :)

[cefarix]

I would suggest a version of BASIC. I got into programming by learning BASIC (in QBASIC) from a couple of books I found at my elementary school library back in 2nd grade. Ah, old-times... I had my first PC in 1994, running DOS + Win3.11 for Workgroups (does anyone remember that?). On my birthday my dad got me MS Flight Sim 5.1 on floppy disks :-D That got me more interested in programming, and then I found a couple of really cool books at the school library. One was blue and thin and it was about writing BASIC programs - but with a storyline that you are stuck on Mars in a spaceship and writing the programs to help you out of your predicament. The other was yellow, with a plastic cover, and thick, and had all kinds of goodies, including programs in which you made a "rocket" on the screen by printing out empty lines to make ASCII-art go up, and other programs that were more like riddles or novels with questions that the "user" answered. I also learned to use QBASIC's built-in help system. One of the first programs I wrote on my own was a simple adder that helped me cheat on my math homework. Then in 5th grade, one day, my dad got me a Java book, Teach Yourself Java in 21-days. I was hooked immediately and even read it by hiding it in my desk during classes at school :-D Soon afterwards I got the book Black Art of Java Game Programming. Ah, good times! That's how I found out about C. The Java book mentioned it. So then we got a book called "Windows Programming for Dummies" and that's how I got into programming with C. I also got a book that came with a Visual C++ 1.0 CD, and another about Windows Game Programming that taught how to use WinG ;) After that, I got interested in graphics and 3D graphics and did lots of little experiments with graphics mode 13h and BIOS keyboard functions, VGA registers and palettes and banks, and all that good stuff, by learning stuff off the web. Anyone remember Andre Lamothe? I really learned C and ASM once I got into operating system programming. I learned web programming and some scripting stuff relatively recently. So something like the above "path" might be the way to go...

[fredybob]

No, No, No! Don`t teach your child Pascal or Lisp or any rubish like that i am a 12 year old and i know C#! Start them off with this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/bb308756.aspx[^] have fun!

[TheDarkFreak]

I would recommend Liberty BASIC, for Windows. It's what got me started on programming in middle school. LB is interesting in that it's BASIC, with a classic BASIC syntax, but it's also got access to the entire Windows API. The only current programming concept it can't teach is Object-Oriented programming, which is not for beginners, anyway. A free version, Just BASIC, is available, but slightly less powerful. http://www.libertybasic.com http://www.justbasic.com

[Zeke Shadfurman]

I would say a version of BASIC is a good place to start. I was programming in basic when I was in 2nd grade though so you may actually want to find something more relevant. By sixth gradeish I was doing C++ and assembly. Its part of the balance of their personality. You don't want them to get frustrated or bored and walk away, but you don't want to make things too easy so they believe real programming is that easy. I think the MOST important part of programming is learning the structure. I was really bad with structure and I don't even think about it when I start writing a small app. The result is I usually miss a key structural element and just do a whole rewrite or two. I'd recommend getting a good flowchart program and encouraging him to plan it out thoroughly before touching the keyboard. Then let him pick what he uses, there are so many free compilers, but the more industry relevant the better I think. Honestly, I use FreeBasic all the time. The runtimes are the fastest I've seen for basic and if I'm just trying to figure out a math concept, I run home to my language mommy. (One of the things I was always interested in but didn't have the money to do till I was older was micro controllers. They have the same gratification as the flashy graphics, but for some reason I always learn more. I think that may be another good place to start learning programming.)

[Rajesh R Subramanian]

Have you been spying on me? :suss:

“Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell

[Buzzby 0]

I think perl is syntactically quirky for my tastes - I think you can get a more orderly syntax from Ruby and also introduce object oriented ideas from the get go. I also like Alice.

No matter where you go, there you are.

[egapekim]

Lego NXT! If you're not familiar, it's a lego robot. The programming is a high level visual block programming. So you programming with a flow chart, there loops decisions etc... you can actually create some pretty complex stuff. I think it's great to learn the concepts of how applications work. From there you can find C and C++ compilers for it, and I believe even a .net version. My nephew is has been obsessed with the thing for years now.

[mironagy]

Perhaps you are looking for the wrong answer... Don't look for a programming langauge to start off with, Start off with html. Get a beginner book to build a website. Only notepad would be required, and a copy of an internet browser. Get them to build their own website with pictures and all. That would be a good simple start. Getting a copy of something like expression web 2 ( 3 is out now so you should be able to get a cheap copy of 2 ).... is a wisiwig designer for web pages too. Leraning html / css for web pages, can then lead to asp.net ( web page programming using vb.net / c#.net ). Cheers' Miro

[DrFrankenstein90]

I'd suggest SmallBasic as a first language.

[Larry G Grimes]

In the old days, I think "Logo" was the language the really young programmers were learning with: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/

[davidlougheed]

I started programming in 5th grade with C++. Yeah. Find some old textbook, or get "Beginning programming for dummies". thats how i started. Good luck!

[Bob Beechey]

I recommend either Phrogrom (small cost but uses .NET with Intellisense and uses Sprite concepts in a simple ay to make it easy to write interesting games) or Python (free, multi-paradigm with nice syntax and no irritating decorations - poweful lists and dictionaries)

[Acshi]

I would recommend some of the child-orientated tutorials from http://www.kidwaresoftware.com/[^], though they aren't free they, they have "trial versions" that are downloads of the first half of the courses.

[ricecake]

In a computational physics class I took, we used True Basic[^] to implement physics algorithms. It was OK in terms of using a BASIC-based language. It looks like it has a demo version you can download, but it terminates after 15 minutes of use. If you want to go the C++ route, You Can Do It! - A beginner's introduction to Computer Programming[^] by Francis Glassborow & Roberta Allen has a pretty positive review. I've never actually looked at the book so I can't give a personal endorsement.

-- Marcus Kwok