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I think it's more important though that there's someone who loves hacking in the child's life. Children pick up on genuine enthusiasm quickly, whether it's from you, your spouse, or someone who's a role model.
Here is a good approach: Answer every question he asks. Help him find his interest. And as Patrick says, read to him now. (Just not Knuth).
Louis CK would disagree with you there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdc28bZ90G4 :)
Love him. Unconditionally. And make sure he always knows it. Everything else is just details. With this, things will inevitably fall nicely into place, no matter what tactics you take. Without it, he will be fucked up no matter what you do and will be coming to hacker news in 2028 posting, "Ask HN: I'm confused and depressed and don't know why."
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I claim that my daughter recognized me by voice at birth when I first spoke to her.
As ridiculous as it sounds, I'm with you on this. I'm certain my little dude recognised my voice when he was born.
My second daughter easily recognizes her older sister voice at birth. My older one spoke to her constantly in the womb (usually asking her when she is going to come out and play with her). The best way to stop her crying is to ask my oldest daughter to sing to her (works better than my singing/soothing)
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> don't force anything on him. This is absolutely true. One of the risks that you take when you have a child is that he'll turn out totally different than you. My father was a farmer, and so we're from basically two different worlds. He could never understand why I wanted to be on the computer on the time, I couldn't understand why he wanted to be outside all the time. But since neither of us tried to force each othe…
> > don't force anything on him. ... Just let him use a computer in a completely natural way. > This is absolutely true. I disagree, sort of. I have a 5 yo and an 8 yo. If you let kids use a computer without guidance, they will learn how to use a computer from their friends at school. And what they learn is to fire up a browser (chrome if you've got it, otherwise Firefox) type " games" into Google and play thousands…
I'm not an expert on children, by any means, but I'd agree with both you and myself.
Also, I don't think there's anything wrong with playing flash games.
My parents watched a lot of PBS or National Geographic type documentaries with me as a child. It gave me a view of the world outside of mine.
Internships. I did mine in my late college years but if you can start kids in high school, again it gives them a view of the future (possibly THEIR future) and great insight on paths to take.
Best of luck to you!
I would just forget about computers and programming completely and focus on the building blocks by a playful approach to solving day-to-day problems with logic and reasoning. Like how do we decide which things belong together? You can also play progressively more complicated iteration games like for-each-time-this-happens-let's-do-this-this-and-this! Or make complicated rube goldberg devices out of household objects…
Not to discourage computer use, but I'd like to second the importance of the playful aspect. Our innate playfulness seems to be beneficial to creative processes. At the very least, it makes learning more fun, engaging. My dad used to hide notecards around the house, with a little clue ("turn around 90 degrees and walk 2 * 3 - 1 steps"). At the location specified, there'd be another little candy and a clue. Worked won…