Small Basic - Success Story [modified]
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Last weekend my son (who is 11 years old) won NetBook on local quiz competition. I was so ecstatic and I suggested we install Small Basic[^] to get him into programming. In the past, I introduced him into some programming including Lego. But I was not that enthusiastic about Lego, where as Small Basic[^] felt right approach into hard core programming. Yesterday was his first day reading about the Small Basic. By the time I got home, he already brushed through the console application part and got the gist of basic programming ( the typical basics such as variables, writing/reading from console, simple text concatenation, conditional statements, and loops). By the time I noticed where he was, he was reading Loops. I got skeptical and asked him to explain to me For and While loops and their difference. His explanation was perfect. Then I asked him to convert the For loop into while loop and the while loop into For loop. Boom he did it ( I swear he did not said plz snd codz ;P ). I am amazed at his speed and comprehension. I have few assignments lines up for him. After we finish with Small Basic, I am thinking to give him some grounds on OOP and then thinking to slowly introduce him to C#. I was skeptical but seen what he has mastered in single day, I feel he can grasp OOP and C#. What do you think? If you have to transition a kid from Small Basic, what would be your next step? Please don't say VB. [Edit] Fixed Small Basic URL mess-up [/Edit] [Edit2] Based on popular question added my son's age [/Edit2]
Yusuf May I help you?
modified on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 12:14 PM
Another Marc Zuckenberg? :)
Cheers,
SMPRecent Tip/Tricks
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How old is he? It is not for critics, it's to know an average to when I can start introducing mine :-D
Oops forgot that part. He is 11.
Yusuf May I help you?
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What Henry said, and:
congrats, proud dad!
:D
FILETIME to time_t
| FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchyThanks +5
Yusuf May I help you?
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Don't push too hard, unless he asks for ideas/suggestions.
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.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
You see that is where I have difficult. He is 11 years old. For a year plus I have been throwing stuff at him and see what he does with it. He is very quick learner, when I ask him if that interests him, he answer is typical of [lost] kids answer. He does not mind it. My philosophy is that, he is free to choose what he want to be. I keep telling him his job to to figure out what interests him and pursue it. My job it to help and support him. I don't want to impose anything on him, but I will be more than happy to help him make his own choice. So far he does not have clear mindset, which does not worry me. Today he wants to be something, next month it is something else. Back to programming, I have being trying to pull back and watch him. The thing that led me to push hard now is 1. He kept mentioning that he is bored with his computer classes. He knows more than what the curriculum says they want to teach him ( how to use computers, how to use the internet, how to search, How to use MS office....) 2. He has figured out Advanced windows stuff (for his age), like setting up Users and permissions, How to manage files and folders, what are system and user files etc. 3. Every thing I mentioned something related to programming he shows interest. I want to push the envelop hard with out breaking his interest or over challenging him and want to see the reaction, but I am concerned at the same time pushing to much. One method to setup things for him leave it there. He will figure out things in few days then he will get bored. So, I though giving him some advanced topics my tickle his 'lil mind. BTW, I notice the same issue (figuring out things then quickly getting bored) with Math and Science as well.
Yusuf May I help you?
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Dalek Dave wrote:
Young minds are like sponges, they can absorb lots
that is true
Dalek Dave wrote:
so get him learning now whilst it is easy.
will try
Yusuf May I help you?
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Thanks, will look that one up.
Yusuf May I help you?
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Last weekend my son (who is 11 years old) won NetBook on local quiz competition. I was so ecstatic and I suggested we install Small Basic[^] to get him into programming. In the past, I introduced him into some programming including Lego. But I was not that enthusiastic about Lego, where as Small Basic[^] felt right approach into hard core programming. Yesterday was his first day reading about the Small Basic. By the time I got home, he already brushed through the console application part and got the gist of basic programming ( the typical basics such as variables, writing/reading from console, simple text concatenation, conditional statements, and loops). By the time I noticed where he was, he was reading Loops. I got skeptical and asked him to explain to me For and While loops and their difference. His explanation was perfect. Then I asked him to convert the For loop into while loop and the while loop into For loop. Boom he did it ( I swear he did not said plz snd codz ;P ). I am amazed at his speed and comprehension. I have few assignments lines up for him. After we finish with Small Basic, I am thinking to give him some grounds on OOP and then thinking to slowly introduce him to C#. I was skeptical but seen what he has mastered in single day, I feel he can grasp OOP and C#. What do you think? If you have to transition a kid from Small Basic, what would be your next step? Please don't say VB. [Edit] Fixed Small Basic URL mess-up [/Edit] [Edit2] Based on popular question added my son's age [/Edit2]
Yusuf May I help you?
modified on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 12:14 PM
Congrats on the precocious son! It is always cool to hear about children wanting to learn stuff of this nature and actually understanding the concepts. Have you looked into getting him either a pSOC eval kit http://www.cypress.com/?rID=40237[^]or a Freescale tower kit. http://www.towergeeks.org/[^]. The kits generally include code and IDE in C++ and assembly. I have three tower kits that are way cool. They have a lot of very cool projects that can spark the minds of young people, and old guys like myself. :)
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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How old is he? My parents' strategy back in the early 80s (I was four years old at the time) was to teach me line numbers and for-next loops (Atari Basic), give me a simple reference book, and leave. Seemed to turn out alright, as I've got bits and bytes in the bloodstream, so to speak... So make sure he sees it as fun, not work... But then... Maybe your kid is different... *shrug*... As for languages... Basic is a good starting point, but going straight to C# and OOP at the same time might be a bit much... Start with static C# console apps to introduce the syntax and the concept of namespaces, then add some functions, THEN classes once he's comfortable with the basics. I'd suggest saving GUIs for later, as that can muddle things. But that's just my two cents.
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)Ian Shlasko wrote:
As for languages... Basic is a good starting point, but going straight to C# and OOP at the same time might be a bit much... Start with static C# console apps to introduce the syntax and the concept of namespaces, then add some functions, THEN classes once he's comfortable with the basics. I'd suggest saving GUIs for later, as that can muddle things.
That is exactly what I have in mind. Thanks
Yusuf May I help you?
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You see that is where I have difficult. He is 11 years old. For a year plus I have been throwing stuff at him and see what he does with it. He is very quick learner, when I ask him if that interests him, he answer is typical of [lost] kids answer. He does not mind it. My philosophy is that, he is free to choose what he want to be. I keep telling him his job to to figure out what interests him and pursue it. My job it to help and support him. I don't want to impose anything on him, but I will be more than happy to help him make his own choice. So far he does not have clear mindset, which does not worry me. Today he wants to be something, next month it is something else. Back to programming, I have being trying to pull back and watch him. The thing that led me to push hard now is 1. He kept mentioning that he is bored with his computer classes. He knows more than what the curriculum says they want to teach him ( how to use computers, how to use the internet, how to search, How to use MS office....) 2. He has figured out Advanced windows stuff (for his age), like setting up Users and permissions, How to manage files and folders, what are system and user files etc. 3. Every thing I mentioned something related to programming he shows interest. I want to push the envelop hard with out breaking his interest or over challenging him and want to see the reaction, but I am concerned at the same time pushing to much. One method to setup things for him leave it there. He will figure out things in few days then he will get bored. So, I though giving him some advanced topics my tickle his 'lil mind. BTW, I notice the same issue (figuring out things then quickly getting bored) with Math and Science as well.
Yusuf May I help you?
Yusuf wrote:
I want to push the envelop hard with out breaking his interest
That's the balancing act. I'm sure that you will find the correct amount of pressure for your son. Good luck.:thumbsup:
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.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
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I agree with Henry, don't push to hard or he may become disinterested. The object is to give him things to do to challenge him but not so hard that he gets discouraged.
Even a blind squirrel gets a nut occasionally. http://www.hq4thmarinescomm.com[^] [My Site]
Mike Hankey wrote:
I agree with Henry, don't push to hard or he may become disinterested. The object is to give him things to do to challenge him but not so hard that he gets discouraged.
I agree. It is easier said than done. I am trying to figure out where is the line where too much challenge bends to discouragement. I know I can always pull back whenever I see he has hard time grasping ideas, but that might be too late.
Yusuf May I help you?
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Another Marc Zuckenberg? :)
Cheers,
SMPRecent Tip/Tricks
Prevent a drag and drop text and Copy paste text in your textbox control
Find a column name within SQL databaseThat is his choice, my part is to help and support. I refrain from mentioning names as not to put pressure on him.
Yusuf May I help you?
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Congrats on the precocious son! It is always cool to hear about children wanting to learn stuff of this nature and actually understanding the concepts. Have you looked into getting him either a pSOC eval kit http://www.cypress.com/?rID=40237[^]or a Freescale tower kit. http://www.towergeeks.org/[^]. The kits generally include code and IDE in C++ and assembly. I have three tower kits that are way cool. They have a lot of very cool projects that can spark the minds of young people, and old guys like myself. :)
It was broke, so I fixed it.
Thanks, I'll look into those.
Yusuf May I help you?
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Mike Hankey wrote:
I agree with Henry, don't push to hard or he may become disinterested. The object is to give him things to do to challenge him but not so hard that he gets discouraged.
I agree. It is easier said than done. I am trying to figure out where is the line where too much challenge bends to discouragement. I know I can always pull back whenever I see he has hard time grasping ideas, but that might be too late.
Yusuf May I help you?
Children don't come with instruction manuals you just have to make best guess. (SWAG)
Even a blind squirrel gets a nut occasionally. http://www.hq4thmarinescomm.com[^] [My Site]
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Yusuf wrote:
I want to push the envelop hard with out breaking his interest
That's the balancing act. I'm sure that you will find the correct amount of pressure for your son. Good luck.:thumbsup:
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.” I wouldn't let CG touch my Abacus! When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is.
Henry Minute wrote:
hat's the balancing act. I'm sure that you will find the correct amount of pressure for your son.
I am sure you will agree with me, it is easier said than in reality, specially with kids. They loose interest very quickly. Trying to figure out whether it was because of too much challenge or simply no more interest keeps bugging me.
Yusuf May I help you?
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Last weekend my son (who is 11 years old) won NetBook on local quiz competition. I was so ecstatic and I suggested we install Small Basic[^] to get him into programming. In the past, I introduced him into some programming including Lego. But I was not that enthusiastic about Lego, where as Small Basic[^] felt right approach into hard core programming. Yesterday was his first day reading about the Small Basic. By the time I got home, he already brushed through the console application part and got the gist of basic programming ( the typical basics such as variables, writing/reading from console, simple text concatenation, conditional statements, and loops). By the time I noticed where he was, he was reading Loops. I got skeptical and asked him to explain to me For and While loops and their difference. His explanation was perfect. Then I asked him to convert the For loop into while loop and the while loop into For loop. Boom he did it ( I swear he did not said plz snd codz ;P ). I am amazed at his speed and comprehension. I have few assignments lines up for him. After we finish with Small Basic, I am thinking to give him some grounds on OOP and then thinking to slowly introduce him to C#. I was skeptical but seen what he has mastered in single day, I feel he can grasp OOP and C#. What do you think? If you have to transition a kid from Small Basic, what would be your next step? Please don't say VB. [Edit] Fixed Small Basic URL mess-up [/Edit] [Edit2] Based on popular question added my son's age [/Edit2]
Yusuf May I help you?
modified on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 12:14 PM
The kid would probably enjoy programming a game or something where he can see the results bounce around on the screen. At least that's what got me going when I was 13 and my Dad gave me an IBM 8088 and I first played Elite[^]. In the end I didn't get very far because Elite was doing in pure ASM and I had no resource for learning ASM back then. But the seed was planted.
Todd Smith
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Last weekend my son (who is 11 years old) won NetBook on local quiz competition. I was so ecstatic and I suggested we install Small Basic[^] to get him into programming. In the past, I introduced him into some programming including Lego. But I was not that enthusiastic about Lego, where as Small Basic[^] felt right approach into hard core programming. Yesterday was his first day reading about the Small Basic. By the time I got home, he already brushed through the console application part and got the gist of basic programming ( the typical basics such as variables, writing/reading from console, simple text concatenation, conditional statements, and loops). By the time I noticed where he was, he was reading Loops. I got skeptical and asked him to explain to me For and While loops and their difference. His explanation was perfect. Then I asked him to convert the For loop into while loop and the while loop into For loop. Boom he did it ( I swear he did not said plz snd codz ;P ). I am amazed at his speed and comprehension. I have few assignments lines up for him. After we finish with Small Basic, I am thinking to give him some grounds on OOP and then thinking to slowly introduce him to C#. I was skeptical but seen what he has mastered in single day, I feel he can grasp OOP and C#. What do you think? If you have to transition a kid from Small Basic, what would be your next step? Please don't say VB. [Edit] Fixed Small Basic URL mess-up [/Edit] [Edit2] Based on popular question added my son's age [/Edit2]
Yusuf May I help you?
modified on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 12:14 PM
By all means let him run as far as he wants to! Little boys are brilliant compared to grown ones; we only get stupid once we discover girls. Your thinking is sound; let him get comfy in Small Basic, then use some examples of real world objects to demonstrate the OOP principles. Hand him C# and let him play with it - he'll probably have a blast. Another good toy is GameMaker, which is a free program (the pro version is only $25) that uses OOP principles to build very functional games, even using threads and synchronization. That might be a good start before destroying his brain with Windows events.
Will Rogers never met me.
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Last weekend my son (who is 11 years old) won NetBook on local quiz competition. I was so ecstatic and I suggested we install Small Basic[^] to get him into programming. In the past, I introduced him into some programming including Lego. But I was not that enthusiastic about Lego, where as Small Basic[^] felt right approach into hard core programming. Yesterday was his first day reading about the Small Basic. By the time I got home, he already brushed through the console application part and got the gist of basic programming ( the typical basics such as variables, writing/reading from console, simple text concatenation, conditional statements, and loops). By the time I noticed where he was, he was reading Loops. I got skeptical and asked him to explain to me For and While loops and their difference. His explanation was perfect. Then I asked him to convert the For loop into while loop and the while loop into For loop. Boom he did it ( I swear he did not said plz snd codz ;P ). I am amazed at his speed and comprehension. I have few assignments lines up for him. After we finish with Small Basic, I am thinking to give him some grounds on OOP and then thinking to slowly introduce him to C#. I was skeptical but seen what he has mastered in single day, I feel he can grasp OOP and C#. What do you think? If you have to transition a kid from Small Basic, what would be your next step? Please don't say VB. [Edit] Fixed Small Basic URL mess-up [/Edit] [Edit2] Based on popular question added my son's age [/Edit2]
Yusuf May I help you?
modified on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 12:14 PM
Yusuf wrote:
I introduced him into some programming including Lego
Lego, or Logo?
Yusuf wrote:
After we finish with Small Basic, I am thinking to give him some grounds on OOP and then thinking to slowly introduce him to C#.
Don't. It will be boring to him (heck, it is boring to me). Better teach him something like JavaScript or even Python.
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Yusuf wrote:
I introduced him into some programming including Lego
Lego, or Logo?
Yusuf wrote:
After we finish with Small Basic, I am thinking to give him some grounds on OOP and then thinking to slowly introduce him to C#.
Don't. It will be boring to him (heck, it is boring to me). Better teach him something like JavaScript or even Python.
Nemanja Trifunovic wrote:
Lego, or Logo?
You know what I mean ;)
Nemanja Trifunovic wrote:
Don't. It will be boring to him (heck, it is boring to me). Better teach him something like JavaScript or even Python.
When he read about Logo he came about the term Javascript and he asked me what it was. Do you think it is proper to jump him to js. I don't know if it will the right tool to teach programming.
Yusuf May I help you?
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By all means let him run as far as he wants to! Little boys are brilliant compared to grown ones; we only get stupid once we discover girls. Your thinking is sound; let him get comfy in Small Basic, then use some examples of real world objects to demonstrate the OOP principles. Hand him C# and let him play with it - he'll probably have a blast. Another good toy is GameMaker, which is a free program (the pro version is only $25) that uses OOP principles to build very functional games, even using threads and synchronization. That might be a good start before destroying his brain with Windows events.
Will Rogers never met me.
-
Last weekend my son (who is 11 years old) won NetBook on local quiz competition. I was so ecstatic and I suggested we install Small Basic[^] to get him into programming. In the past, I introduced him into some programming including Lego. But I was not that enthusiastic about Lego, where as Small Basic[^] felt right approach into hard core programming. Yesterday was his first day reading about the Small Basic. By the time I got home, he already brushed through the console application part and got the gist of basic programming ( the typical basics such as variables, writing/reading from console, simple text concatenation, conditional statements, and loops). By the time I noticed where he was, he was reading Loops. I got skeptical and asked him to explain to me For and While loops and their difference. His explanation was perfect. Then I asked him to convert the For loop into while loop and the while loop into For loop. Boom he did it ( I swear he did not said plz snd codz ;P ). I am amazed at his speed and comprehension. I have few assignments lines up for him. After we finish with Small Basic, I am thinking to give him some grounds on OOP and then thinking to slowly introduce him to C#. I was skeptical but seen what he has mastered in single day, I feel he can grasp OOP and C#. What do you think? If you have to transition a kid from Small Basic, what would be your next step? Please don't say VB. [Edit] Fixed Small Basic URL mess-up [/Edit] [Edit2] Based on popular question added my son's age [/Edit2]
Yusuf May I help you?
modified on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 12:14 PM
I think the C# route is a good plan, but make it fun. I think your son (like I) enjoys Small Basic because it comes with everything you need to get up and running (I'm guessing it has a small "manual" of sorts like QuickBasic does, which is the first language I liked). Rather than overwhelm him with all of C#, perhaps start with XNA and find some game tutorials for him to start with.
