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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

#51

Post by tobinfricke »

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).

> I started programming on my own at 7... Mainly because my IBM PC booted into a BASIC window if

Same here!

Getting started in programming seems so much more daunting these days.

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

#52

Post by ketanmaheshwari »

dharmab wrote: post #30
ketanmaheshwari wrote: post #19

I taught my 15 year old python programming over summer. We used the material provided by this course [1]. It worked out very well for us. We took a little detour at one point and I taught her basic skills to navigate around Linux terminal. Files, directories, editors, basic operational stuff. Then I took another little detour and showed her ropes on git and github. Then we got back to the python course and now I enco…

On the one hand, taxes are boring. On the other hand, pretty much everyone I know wishes they had learned more about how taxes work in high school beyond the very high-level concepts of progressive taxes....

That is what I figured when choosing tax as a project. She will learn programming but also doing tax which is going to be useful to her and perhaps others who will come in her contact over time. And who knows, if the tax project takes off, it could be a revenue generating side hustle for her.

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

#53

Post by sherlockx »

lmilcin wrote: post #32
sherlockx wrote: post #16

BBC micro:bit V2 - Will be able to get tangible results very quickly. Start with the simple stuff: https://microbit.org/projects/make-it-code-it/ I find games in scratch are complex and require too much programming knowledge to really get something interesting up and running. The micro:bit on the other hand can do interesting lights, sounds, etc with just the drag and drop of a few lines.

I didn't know micro:bit works with Scratch, thanks a lot!!! I had plans to make some kind of board with STM32 that could be programmed with Scratch but maybe I will put that project off and use micro:bit instead.

No prob. I'm going through the same process as you at the moment, have been looking at all the options for a while. Micro:bit seems to be the best fit for young learners.

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

#54

Post by biztos »

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).

I also started about that age. At least in the 70’s I think it was a normal age to expose kids to computers if the family was so inclined, and back then Programming was the only thing you could do with such a gadget so that’s what we did.

Ok, I was also competing with my brother who was 10, but still: didn’t feel unusual at all.

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

#55

Post by brianush1 »

chasd00 wrote: post #10

The most success i've had with my 8 year old is building games in Roblox and the LUA scripting that comes along with that. We also have written some MicroPython to drive a small rover. With kids, or my kids at least, you have to be able to show some tangible results quickly or else they get bored. ...kind of like dealing with your boss. another thing that my 8 year old is really into that surprised me is networks. Ex…

> LUA

Not that it really matters that much, but just for future reference: Lua is a proper noun, not an acronym.

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

#56

Post by overcast »

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).

That's not a counterpoint, that's just reinforcing their point. It's a good idea to open up a child to as many early experiences as possible, but don't project your interests on them. They'll find out what they like on their own.

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

#57

Post by jgwil2 »

Simulacra wrote: post #15

My father tried to introduce me to programing when I was 12, BASIC, but it didn't go well, nor did it go well when I tried to learn every subsequent language. Being ADHD I needed instant gratification with minimal effort, to pull me deeper in so I wouldn't bounce to the next thing. Programing was chaotic, hard to keep straight, and frustrating because my ego wouldn't let me say "hey, you don't have all the answers, l…

I think it's a problem for a lot of kids that it's hard for them not to be instantly good at something. Learning patience is part of growing up and gaining experience.

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

#58

Post by forbiddenvoid »

turtlebits wrote: post #36

Unpopular opinion, but I am of the mind that my kid (now 8 yo) needs to get a full experience of learning with writing/drawing/reading on paper before I "shortcut" him to doing it on a computer. Same goes for self-entertainment.

I think this is important. A lot of programming classes or teaching focuses just on the tools, but not really on the goals of what you want to use those tools to do.

My daughter is really into Minecraft and has learned that there are mods out there. So, now there is something she actually wants to be able to DO. That's a big part of what drives programming motivation for kids.

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

#59

Post by dave_sid »

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.

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!”
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