Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do I give my son a head start?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 157 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do I give my son a head start?

#11

Post by michael_dorfman »

I'd be careful in this line of thinking, if I were you. Projecting wishes and expectations onto one's children is common, and counter-productive.

I was very excited when my daughter, around the age of 10, showed interest in programming. I showed her Scratch (from MIT), but I think my enthusiasm scared her off-- and she dropped it quickly. I regret that I didn't play it a bit cooler.

Re: Ask HN: How do I give my son a head start?

#12

Post by steveklabnik »

coffeenut wrote: post #4

I've always thought something like turtle graphics (e.g. http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/webturtle/ ) is a neat way to teach kids programming/algorithm basics. It's simple enough to understand the basics, yet powerful enough to be engaging enough to keep a child's interest, providing them a direct visual output to their 'code'. I would stay away from the higher level stuff like Visual Basic; there is so much magic going on…

We actually made a turtle graphics DSL in Ruby for Hackety Hack, because turtle graphics are so awesome. An example:

http://github.com/hacketyhack/hacketyhack/blob/master/sample...

Re: Ask HN: How do I give my son a head start?

#15

Post by curt »

I owned a kids toy/developmental products company, be careful not to over stimulate your child. Over stimulation is just as bad as neglecting your child. This is the time to introduce your child to multiple languages, just have them playing in the background. Remember children are just large neural networks that work by recognizing patterns.

Don't focus on the subject or topic as much as the problem solving process. Children learn through pattern recognition until they have mastered language which leads to thought.

Remember children have short attention spans so only have them work on a subject/topic for a brief period or the children will develop a negative connotation with the subject.

A few people have mentioned mobile applications they are awesome. I developed a few apps that have been strongly adopted by organizations that work with developmentally challenged children. The simplicity and interactivity really makes a difference.

Re: Ask HN: How do I give my son a head start?

#16

Post by wglb »

KoZeN wrote: post #8
patio11 wrote: post #7

Read to him when he is young, with him when older. It is the most stupidly effective academic intervention I'm aware of.

Agreed and this is something I started whilst he was still in the womb!

I claim that my daughter recognized me by voice at birth when I first spoke to her.

Re: Ask HN: How do I give my son a head start?

#17

Post by zootar »

Kids can start programming a lot earlier if their introductory experience really minimizes frustration and time to gratification. Python is probably a good starting language for teenagers, but for pre-teens, who are much less cognitively mature, you'll have a lot more luck sooner if you introduce them to an IDE with great code completion and the power to make a GUI. Obvious candidates are Visual C# and Visual Basic, but I would strongly consider Adobe Flash as well. Children love making animations with Flash, and Flash's scripting language, ActionScript, has all of the features of a full-fledged programming language.

You can start even younger with HTML. HTML isn't programming, but it's relevant training for a developing brain. Balancing brackets, thinking logically, paying attention to detail, and the "write, run, debug" routine are all present when writing HTML.

My path to programming started when I discovered a copy of FrontPage Express (an old WYSIWYG HTML editor) installed on my computer. I quickly went from FrontPage, to HTML, to Flash/ActionScript, to Visual Basic, to C++. Obviously, that isn't the logical way for a teenager or an adult to learn programming, but for a child, it was incredibly natural.

Re: Ask HN: How do I give my son a head start?

#18

Post by canadaduane »

michael_dorfman wrote: post #11

I'd be careful in this line of thinking, if I were you. Projecting wishes and expectations onto one's children is common, and counter-productive. I was very excited when my daughter, around the age of 10, showed interest in programming. I showed her Scratch (from MIT), but I think my enthusiasm scared her off-- and she dropped it quickly. I regret that I didn't play it a bit cooler.

Enthusiasm can be shown in several ways. One interesting tidbit from psychological research is that praising children's results often leads to their own paralysis. Instead, parents should praise how hard they tried.

See Berkeley's Half Full blog:

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/raising_happiness/post/the_r...

Re: Ask HN: How do I give my son a head start?

#20

Post by canadaduane »

jonnathanson wrote: post #5

We learn what we love. Best way to get him to learn computers is to get him to love computers. You'll be setting him up for a life of social awkwardness and little success in the dating game, but you'll be doing the right thing for him. :) I would start him on games and other "fun" stuff. Teach him to make his own games via BASIC or some equivalent thereof. If it's fun, he'll want to do it on his own. If you're just…

My parents challenged my brother and me (when we were kids) by limiting our time on the computer, but only when playing games. The rule was essentially this: you can play games for an hour a day, OR you can try to make your own games on the computer for as long as you want. We were naturally engineering-minded and attracted to the magical black box that could do anything, so we took the challenge.
Post reply on HN