Lego Mindstorms might be good. It's pretty powerful, but its a lego set, so you don't need to put too much work into it to make something.
Ask HN:How to introduce a 5 year old to computer science?
11–20 of 25 posts
Re: Ask HN:How to introduce a 5 year old to computer science?
#12Why do you want to introduce a 5-year-old to computer science? Has your kid expressed interest?
The child is my nephew. The reason I want to show him computer science is from my own experience. When I was a kid, I got my first computer before all my friends. Today, I realize that made a big difference. Also, I see that his parents do not do not care about that, they gave him a tablet just to play and watch videos on youtube. I just want to show him that there's so much more than that!
He may not be as interested in computer science as you are, just realize that.
Re: Ask HN:How to introduce a 5 year old to computer science?
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
The child is my nephew. The reason I want to show him computer science is from my own experience. When I was a kid, I got my first computer before all my friends. Today, I realize that made a big difference. Also, I see that his parents do not do not care about that, they gave him a tablet just to play and watch videos on youtube. I just want to show him that there's so much more than that!
He may not be as interested in computer science as you are, just realize that.
I know, my intention is not to impose but to show him what exists and what can be done. I believe that if I do not do that, no one will.
[Edit] I say that because I live in the coutryside in Brazil. People here, specificaly in my city, are focused in agricultural activities and are still not used to deal with computers.
Re: Ask HN:How to introduce a 5 year old to computer science?
#14The book Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold is pretty fun for kids. You can play along with almost everything in it if you buy some (cheap) hardware. Very "hands on" explanations.
Re: Ask HN:How to introduce a 5 year old to computer science?
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
He may not be as interested in computer science as you are, just realize that.
I know, my intention is not to impose but to show him what exists and what can be done. I believe that if I do not do that, no one will. [Edit] I say that because I live in the coutryside in Brazil. People here, specificaly in my city, are focused in agricultural activities and are still not used to deal with computers.
Realize that by pushing someone into a hobby you're going to disrupt their ability to discover or experience it for themselves. Give them a computer, not CS problems.
I would probably hate CS if my parents told me to get into it or started leaving breadcrumbs for me to pick up.
Re: Ask HN:How to introduce a 5 year old to computer science?
#16Bet they use the TV and are used to it. Get a Raspberry Pi (and keyboard and mouse and controllers), show it to them, plug it in. In whatever order: Play some games. MODIFY a game. Install/run a good LOGO variant (once they read enough to use it). Show them some neat LOGO programming. Help them make their own LOGO programs. Leave them alone to make their own stuff.
Consider Scratch or another "kids" environment, if/when LOGO doesn't seem to be enough.
When they are up to it, help and/or encourage them to make their own games. Or whatever -- if games turn out not to be their thing.
So, you take a TV that is passive. And you make it active. With this cool and tech and not "packaged" looking PCB. And you show them how it can do what they want -- if they can figure it out.
And, don't forget to go out and ride bikes, too.
P.S. The computer is not magic, and it's not a fancy TV. It's a tool. It'll do whatever you want, if you can figure it out.
P.P.S. For bonus points, when they become a teenager, turn them on to the paranoia of the war on general computing. ;-)
Re: Ask HN:How to introduce a 5 year old to computer science?
#17Way I got into it was video games, and having to pick up computers and hardware to actually play anything (along with having my parents generally against it, so if I wanted to upgrade my pc for new games, I had to be careful aka research)
So following that idea; don't teach them CS, give them something that'll force them to pick up CS along the way; and don't let them access the easy route to victory
IE if he wants to play games, don't let him use anything but windows 7 and ban any modern video game. Give him a few copies of good older titles, and no additional instruction; like civ 3, sim city 1, star control 2, etc; by not giving him modern games, he'll be stuck playing alone with no one his age to talk to about it; no one, that is, but the internet. And if he can only play older works, then he'll inevitably read into the history, and select from the older games, and eventually you can let him upgrade his hardware at his own risk, and so it goes on.
Essentially, don't let him get trapped in minecraft; a healthy start, and a tough environment, and he'll come out tough is my belief
Re: Ask HN:How to introduce a 5 year old to computer science?
#18Basic boolean logic. There is also a nice board game called Robot Turtles that helps.
Understanding base-2 numbers (and other bases) is another good idea, though it's more suitable for a ten year old.
Game: represent numbers using progressively more exotic representations:
Base 10 Base 5 Base 2 Unary
Then
Fibonacci base (http://www.maths.surrey.ac.uk/hosted-sites/R.Knott/Fibonacci... )
Then
Invent a place-value system using product of primes (inspired by fundamental theorem of arithmetic)
Etc. This is a very "digital" set of exercises and it's very focused on counting. Logic will take care of itself.
Re: Ask HN:How to introduce a 5 year old to computer science?
#19There's a board game called "Robot Turtles" that's designed to teach programming concepts to kids. I was initially pretty skeptical, but our preschooler loves it.
Re: Ask HN:How to introduce a 5 year old to computer science?
#20I have a 5 year old who is a pretty good reader and seems to be naturally interested in math and computers/tablets. He'll get really interested in one thing for a while then float to something else.
I set him up on a super old laptop to run the desktop version of Scratch. I picked up a set of books by this publisher at Costco. He made it through 3 of the game tutorials and thought it was fun. The hardest thing for him was clicking/using the mouse and touchpad. https://www.amazon.com/DK-Workbooks-Coding-Scratch-Workbook/... We passed the books to some friends after he found something else to explore.
Currently, he's avidly playing a game called "Box Island" on iPad. It's a coding game with several free levels. I was pleasantly surprised when he finished the free levels after a few weeks (we limit iPad time) and requested I buy the remaining levels. Before this game, he was playing Kodable, which was free but had terrible graphics, imho.
We were gifted Robot Turtles but that didn't take.