Code.org has a fantastic suite of tutorials aimed at kids that use a Scratch-like environment but it also gets to the point where you’re writing code. Also free. Teaches concepts of control flow, functions, algorithms, etc.
Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?
51–60 of 104 posts
Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?
#52I work teaching CS to a variety of age levels (admittedly mostly teenagers and older), and one thing I would recommend is broadening your consideration about what CS fundamentals might include. Picking up language syntax or new tools is easy enough at whatever age, but problem solving and planning skills are very tough to rebuild as they grow into adolescence. One of my personal favorite resources is CS Unplugged. [1…
I plan to begin and I grew up before the nineties. I probably know less than your kids. Paper is my native go-to. Thank you for this! Advice please: Can I get started using my now-antique Win 98 and Win7 hardware, while using phone or Win11 for online lookups?
It looks to me like there is consensus for Minecraft and Godot. I expect Minecraft to work on old hardware. How about Godot? Can it be used offline?
Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?
#53Creative coding events like #Genuary (January) and #Minacoding (June) are good ways to pique interest too, each day is a different prompt to create something new using whatever you like.
Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?
#54It's important to remember that the exercise of teaching children coding isn't so much about teaching them how to code, but how to think, how to plan, predict, conjecture, reason and so forth. It's just a convenient and quicker way of teaching these things than the alternatives.
If they have a good foundation in these things, then if they choose to go on to coding later they can learn all of the minutiae. But I've found in teaching it is important to stress that learning basic coding is _not_ about steering them towards coding as a career, or even a pursuit.
It _is_ important to stress that learning basic coding will help them become better problem solvers, better able to anticipate issues and mitigate them. And that this is useful to them in a wide variety of areas in which they may have interest, such as sports, engineering, adventuring etc. And yes, also learning how to guide an LLM.
So once you get those fundamentals down in the context of coding (Scratch, GameMaker, Logo, BASIC are all fine here), go practice them in more real-world applications. Those are the skills you need to foster, not object-oriented programming. And if they take an interest in going further with coding, then that's fine. They will have the tools they need to do that.
Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And how permanently stunted is a person who always "collaborated" and never had to think. How permanently stunted are today's programmers which have always collaborated with a compiler or interpreter, and never once written or even looked at assembly?
That's levels of abstraction, but still thinking. Just last night, while looking for clear technical information about MCP integration options for Gemini, I found this Google-written article[1], that -- with a positive, hype-compliant spin -- opens with: > Have you ever had something on the tip of your tongue, but you weren’t exactly sure how to describe what’s in your mind? > For developers, this is where "vibe codi…
You call compilers "levels of abstraction but still thinking", I call LLMs yet another level of abstraction.
This isn't really some new concept, the only thing new is that it's being applied to areas that haven't historically had a ton of automation.
Hand-wringing about LLMs and "not thinking" is the same thing that was hand-wrung about students using calculators and not knowing how to do long division. Or using a computer lookup and not knowing how to use the dewey decimal system. Heck, or using an automobile/bicycle and not knowing how to shoe a horse.
People over the last decade have demonstrated they are perfectly capable of generating large quantities of crappy, not-thought-out code all on their own. Just look around you. LLMs democratize the lowest common denominator, and those that are doing sufficiently difficult, nuanced, unique things that they actually need to know what they're doing, will continue to do so.
I don't think LLMs will reduce the abilities of the 10% best software engineers, and I don't think the quality of output of the rest will meaningfully change.
Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's levels of abstraction, but still thinking. Just last night, while looking for clear technical information about MCP integration options for Gemini, I found this Google-written article[1], that -- with a positive, hype-compliant spin -- opens with: > Have you ever had something on the tip of your tongue, but you weren’t exactly sure how to describe what’s in your mind? > For developers, this is where "vibe codi…
You call compilers "levels of abstraction but still thinking", I call LLMs yet another level of abstraction. This isn't really some new concept, the only thing new is that it's being applied to areas that haven't historically had a ton of automation. Hand-wringing about LLMs and "not thinking" is the same thing that was hand-wrung about students using calculators and not knowing how to do long division. Or using a co…
In this thread, I'm responding to the question of whether you teach a child the things, vs. OP's "Knowing fundamentals is always useful, but learning to collaborate with an AI is probably the more important long-term skill."
I agree that our field is already full of poo. But, at least with one child, we have a chance to nurture them to be much better than that.
I'll make that argument with enthusiasm and determination.
Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?
#57This is probably our last chance to teach kids programming before it becomes utterly meaningless to do so over the next 5-10 years.
Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?
#58In my experience, most of the time when kids say they want to make games, that doesn't mean they want to code them. Making a game is usually not a task done by a lone coder. It is a task done by someone who can manage different technical, creative and business types. I think kids want to have ideas. This creativity can be captured by coding, maybe, but maybe there are better outlets for the individual. The director of street fighter 5, for example, started as a music composer.
I think it's important to really understand our kids. They may not have the experience or vocabulary to have this discussion. Wanting to make a game and coding are different things. You're on the right path in terms of breaking things down into smaller, solvable problems. Coding might be part of it, but translatable skills to making a game might also include leading a band, making a short film, playing team sports, etc.
Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?
#59Code.org has a fantastic suite of tutorials aimed at kids that use a Scratch-like environment but it also gets to the point where you’re writing code. Also free. Teaches concepts of control flow, functions, algorithms, etc.
It used to, but it sucks lately.
Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?
#608 year old badly wants to be an engineer like his dad. :’) Public school got him into Scratch so he was animating things. The high school robotics team I mentor has Lego robotics kits for their community outreach program. Those kits use Scratch. So I got him a used kit and he spends an absolutely ridiculous amount of time making robots that do stuff. This started at a very young age: we gave him access to a windows P…
This is great advice.