Best tools\methods to teach programming to Kids.
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So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming. Now , where should I start?
Kodu helps children with critical thinking, breaking a complex goal into manageable steps, and iterate on the design process – an approach applicable to all academic subjects, business and personal relationships Oh good grief. The ignorance of child development is appalling.
SalCon wrote:
So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming.
First of all, you should wait another 5 years or so. Second, this is a time for developing the physical body, fine motor control, artistic abilities, social skills, spending time outdoors, , etc., not sitting in front of a computer! All of which, by the way, has been shown, even in mainstream studies, to have direct and positive influence on brain development. Argh! Yes, I feel very strongly about this subject, I don't particularly care about the counter-views that promote introducing technology to young children, they are, quite simply, WRONG. Disagree if you will, but I will not be swayed. Marc
My Blog
The Relationship Oriented Programming IDE
Melody's Amazon Herb Site -
Pushed in at too young an age will lead to rejection and fear! Better to encourage them in small steps and make no big deal of it. 'Boiling Frogs'
--------------------------------- I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^]
Dalek Dave wrote:
'Boiling Frogs'
Oh god Dave, not another stupid meme that you believe without question. Next you'll be telling us little green men live on Mars! http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5402/can-a-frog-be-slowly-boiled-alive-without-it-noticing[^]
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SalCon wrote:
Quite frequently I...feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming.
Big mistake on your part. Making it available is one thing, but making someone like it is completely different, not to mention outright wrong.
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DavidCrow wrote:
but making someone like it is completely different, not to mention outright wrong.
Agreed.
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"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "But you probably have the smoothest scrotum of any grown man" - Pete O'Hanlon (2012) -
So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming. Now , where should I start?
If you really want to capture his imagination, try Lego Mindstorms robot kits. The programming is simplified, and he gets to build things, too!
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming. Now , where should I start?
Why not instead see whether he's interested in it and has the right mindset for it? There's an indie game I picked up on Steam a while back called SpaceChem, which is essentially a visual programming game, where you build machines to construct certain types of molecules... It might be a little too advanced for a 5-year-old, though... Not sure, as I tend to avoid micro-humans :)
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels) -
So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming. Now , where should I start?
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So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming. Now , where should I start?
This type of question tends to be asked a couple of times a year. My kid is now eleven and shows little interest in learning how to program. One thing I'll mention is Gameroo LightBot, but I daren't try to find a link from work. If I remember, I'll post one later. Another thing that comes to mind is that on Club Penguin there's occasionally an EPF mission that involves giving movement instructions to a robot. Edit: http://www.kongregate.com/games/Coolio_Niato/light-bot[^]
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FTW! :thumbsup:+5 /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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Kodu helps children with critical thinking, breaking a complex goal into manageable steps, and iterate on the design process – an approach applicable to all academic subjects, business and personal relationships Oh good grief. The ignorance of child development is appalling.
SalCon wrote:
So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming.
First of all, you should wait another 5 years or so. Second, this is a time for developing the physical body, fine motor control, artistic abilities, social skills, spending time outdoors, , etc., not sitting in front of a computer! All of which, by the way, has been shown, even in mainstream studies, to have direct and positive influence on brain development. Argh! Yes, I feel very strongly about this subject, I don't particularly care about the counter-views that promote introducing technology to young children, they are, quite simply, WRONG. Disagree if you will, but I will not be swayed. Marc
My Blog
The Relationship Oriented Programming IDE
Melody's Amazon Herb SiteAgreed. I seem to remember a study recently that advocated no screen time of any kind for children under 2 (no TV, no video games, no computer), and small amounts with strict rationing after that.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming. Now , where should I start?
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So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming. Now , where should I start?
Wow, you are a horrible uncle :). a) Why would you force the kid to like anything? b) Of all things, why would you force the kid to like programming??? I've been programming for 16+ yrs and would never recommend this career to ANYONE. No, I don't mean I want to slit my wrist every day I go to work. It's just super repetitive, you do pretty much the same thing at every single company, you have to deal with politics, boring projects, etc. Seriously, if I could go back 20+ yrs, I would have chosen a different career. Only thing good about programming is lots of $$$ for not much work (assuming you get into a low pressure environment).
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Agreed :thumbsup:
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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Wow, you are a horrible uncle :). a) Why would you force the kid to like anything? b) Of all things, why would you force the kid to like programming??? I've been programming for 16+ yrs and would never recommend this career to ANYONE. No, I don't mean I want to slit my wrist every day I go to work. It's just super repetitive, you do pretty much the same thing at every single company, you have to deal with politics, boring projects, etc. Seriously, if I could go back 20+ yrs, I would have chosen a different career. Only thing good about programming is lots of $$$ for not much work (assuming you get into a low pressure environment).
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So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming. Now , where should I start?
I would vouch for Multimedia Fusion 2, the community is great and there's no complex programming or syntax involved, just linking together different pre-programmed code using drag/drop interface. It's easy to do and I've personally made a tutorial on how to make a chatroom in under 10 minutes. That said, age of 8+ seems more suitable to get him started with coding. As a final point, you could try origami to encourage a creative trait :)
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So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming. Now , where should I start?
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So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming. Now , where should I start?
I am not sure it counts as programming, but have you considered buying him a Bigtrak?
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Agreed. I seem to remember a study recently that advocated no screen time of any kind for children under 2 (no TV, no video games, no computer), and small amounts with strict rationing after that.
Software Zen:
delete this;I read about that too - it'll be hard to enforce in today's always-online world.
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SledgeHammer01 wrote:
different career
Is it indeed a career at all?
Peter Wasser Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. Frank Zappa
I've been getting paid for it for 32 years now, so yeah... it's a career.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming. Now , where should I start?
Chess.
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So I have a 5 year old nephew who I am very fond of. Quite frequently I ponder about his education and feel that he should be made to fall in love with programming. Now , where should I start?
http://smallbasic.com/[^] 5 is a bit young, but Microsoft SmallBasic is an easy to use language for kids. The reference material is good, it starts with really simple examples (1-3 lines). Then it analyzes the program, and finally it describes the concept. For those of you with education backgrounds this is a recommended way to introduce math concepts to young minds, moving from concrete to abstract. My 10 year old son wanted to start programming, so I've been letting him pretty much self guide himself through the material. My 7 year old daughter felt left out, and has been working away too. Neither have had any issues with the material. It also is a kick for me, having started using Basic on an old Timex Sinclair that plugged into the TV.
