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Ask HN: Please share your experience teaching your kids to program

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Re: Ask HN: Please share your experience teaching your kids to program

#131

Post by Mayzie »

markc wrote: post #120

Didn't work: - BASIC, Ruby, Python, Java setups + intros, tutorials. - LEGO Mindstorms - Scratch, Squeak - Coding classes / camps Note that I "made these things "available" but never pushed. I'd set up the environment, show him to to edit and run the code, and pointed him to tutorials. After some time went by I'd show him the next thing. Rinse and repeat. Worked: A Texas Instruments programmable calculator. He read t…

> Worked:

> A Texas Instruments programmable calculator. He read the manual, played with it a bit, then found out he could automate some of his homework. Then found out he could make simple games. Then fairly impressive games.

That's pretty much how I got into programming, except rather than homework it was coding automation for a very repetitive video game I was playing at the time. Although in terms of time spent, it was a net loss as I spent more time combined programming and playing as opposed to just playing, but there was a significant net profit in terms of skills I learned which has had a far more practical and positive benefit to the real world as opposed to if I just played the video game all the time :)

Re: Ask HN: Please share your experience teaching your kids to program

#132

Post by TeaDrunk »

bigmattystyles wrote: post #39
theelous3 wrote: post #33

I taught in a coderdojo for a while. As a mentor; unless the kid wants to go, please don't come :) So many uninterested kids from helicopter parents. Kids as young as 6 just absolutely clueless and learning nothing. If you want your kid to program, just buy them an actual computer system with files and a terminal, not some ipad shit, and let them at it. If they code they code. If they don't, you can try teaching them…

>> As a mentor; unless the kid wants to go, please don't come :) This so much. There is no quicker way to turn them off of it permanently whereas they might just not be ready to come to it yet. Alternatively, wait for the kid to be hungry for a snack then have her program an Arduino controlled can opener to open a can of beans. /s

Places where I didn't expect to see bean dad spicy takes

Re: Ask HN: Please share your experience teaching your kids to program

#133

Post by SkyMarshal »

jedberg wrote: post #37
colinmhayes wrote: post #9

Your kid is 7. I'm pretty sure hat I was eating dirt when I was 7. If he has showed you he's interested in programming then go ahead, but make sure you're not projecting your own interests onto your kid. It'll lead to resentment in 7 or 8 years.

As a counterpoint, I started programming on my own at 7 with no guidance. Mainly because my IBM PC booted into a BASIC window if you didn't put the DOS disk in. I asked my mom to get my some magazines from the library so I could copy the games in them. So it's not totally odd for a 7 year old (or I was odd, which is quite possible).

>If he has showed you he's interested in programming then go ahead,

>As a counterpoint, I started programming on my own at 7 with no guidance.

To nitpick, that's not really a counterpoint. Parent comment already allowed for the possibility that OP's 7yr old is independently interested in programming. If a child develops that interest of their own volition, with no pressure or leading from the parents, then by all means support and cultivate it. It's only a problem when the parents try to force the child in that direction before the child has developed their own interest first.

Re: Ask HN: Please share your experience teaching your kids to program

#134

Post by seibelj »

markc wrote: post #120

Didn't work: - BASIC, Ruby, Python, Java setups + intros, tutorials. - LEGO Mindstorms - Scratch, Squeak - Coding classes / camps Note that I "made these things "available" but never pushed. I'd set up the environment, show him to to edit and run the code, and pointed him to tutorials. After some time went by I'd show him the next thing. Rinse and repeat. Worked: A Texas Instruments programmable calculator. He read t…

I taught myself to program on a Ti83 because I wanted to cheat on math tests by creating programs to do the formulas and calculations in trig and calculus. However by learning them enough to write a program to automate it, I was actually doing a form of applied-studying and learned them so well I didn't need the programs!

Re: Ask HN: Please share your experience teaching your kids to program

#135

Post by compscistd »

markc wrote: post #120

Didn't work: - BASIC, Ruby, Python, Java setups + intros, tutorials. - LEGO Mindstorms - Scratch, Squeak - Coding classes / camps Note that I "made these things "available" but never pushed. I'd set up the environment, show him to to edit and run the code, and pointed him to tutorials. After some time went by I'd show him the next thing. Rinse and repeat. Worked: A Texas Instruments programmable calculator. He read t…

A classmate of mine in HS always played with his TI in class and I had a similar calculator (TI-84 plus silver edition). I asked him what he was doing and he introduced me to basic logical operators to make math class easier. That’s how it all began for me.

Will, if you’re reading this, I owe you my career!

Re: Ask HN: Please share your experience teaching your kids to program

#136

Post by _ouml_ »

Two months ago I bought a starter kit with some electronics: breadboards, LEDs, cables, transistors, resistors, etc...

My 8/9yo daughter really got hooked, and since then I've bought all kinds of logic gates, switches, timers, flipflops etc...

I use the videos from Ben Eater as inspiration but I haven't told my daughter that you can build a programmable CPU using this stuff. I don't want to spoil the surprise.

After learning binary numbers, I asked her if she could build a circuit to add two digits. She designed her own version of a full adder, chained 4 of them together, and now has her own 4-bit calculator.

The cool thing is that she will explain it in detail to anybody who wants to listen. But she is also quickly discovering that modt people don't know binary...

What I like most about this is that she is now hacking independently, and having here own ideas. At some point I might teach her some formulas, but she hasn't shown interest there. And the occasional LED burning up isn't going to make me bankrupt (-;

Tl;dr: breadboard electronics is cool, worked with my 9yo daughter

Re: Ask HN: Please share your experience teaching your kids to program

#137

Post by jeffnappi »

markc wrote: post #120

Didn't work: - BASIC, Ruby, Python, Java setups + intros, tutorials. - LEGO Mindstorms - Scratch, Squeak - Coding classes / camps Note that I "made these things "available" but never pushed. I'd set up the environment, show him to to edit and run the code, and pointed him to tutorials. After some time went by I'd show him the next thing. Rinse and repeat. Worked: A Texas Instruments programmable calculator. He read t…

How do you attribute failure to the early introductions? Perhaps they didn't stick at the time, but they likely laid a solid foundation :)

Re: Ask HN: Please share your experience teaching your kids to program

#138

Post by j2bax »

jedberg wrote: post #37
colinmhayes wrote: post #9

Your kid is 7. I'm pretty sure hat I was eating dirt when I was 7. If he has showed you he's interested in programming then go ahead, but make sure you're not projecting your own interests onto your kid. It'll lead to resentment in 7 or 8 years.

As a counterpoint, I started programming on my own at 7 with no guidance. Mainly because my IBM PC booted into a BASIC window if you didn't put the DOS disk in. I asked my mom to get my some magazines from the library so I could copy the games in them. So it's not totally odd for a 7 year old (or I was odd, which is quite possible).

Can you expand some on copying games from magazines?

Re: Ask HN: Please share your experience teaching your kids to program

#139

Post by ransom1538 »

ransom1538 wrote: post #94
colinmhayes wrote: post #9

Your kid is 7. I'm pretty sure hat I was eating dirt when I was 7. If he has showed you he's interested in programming then go ahead, but make sure you're not projecting your own interests onto your kid. It'll lead to resentment in 7 or 8 years.

Meh. My kid will leave the house able to program at the pro level. If they resentment me and open a bar more power to them. If the bar fails and they need to program to make ends meet - great. If I was a plumber, my kids would leave my house a certified plumber. If they want to be a lawyer instead - more power to them. Either way my kids leave with a skill.

What ever you do, give your kid a skill. Let them hate you for it.

Re: Ask HN: Please share your experience teaching your kids to program

#140

Post by detaro »

gfaure wrote: post #74
dave_sid wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree completely. I don’t understand the recent trend to believe that we need to get kids into software engineering as soon as they pop out of the birth canal. My friend is an accountant. If he asked me for advice on how to make spreadsheets more fun for his kid I’d think he had something against his kid. In the words of Pink Floyd “Hey! Nerds! Leave them kids alone!”

To be fair, software engineering connects better to the interests of STEM-ish kids (video games, robotics, electronics) than spreadsheets ever could.

"video games, robotics, electronics" is a rather tech-sided perspective of "STEM".

Spreadsheets are great for maths, planning projects, tracking experiments/collecting data, ... which I'd also all attribute to things "STEM-ish kids" might do.

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