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

No offence to you. If your kids show a genuine interest then fostering that interest makes sense of course. It could be programming or it could be tennis, if they show an interest then go for it. I guess I’m just sick of seeing so much marketing around ‘code-for-kids’ classes and products and all that faff.

He says his kid asked for programming books. Doesn't seem like it's being forced to me. Could it be that maybe, just maybe, both father and son enjoy programming?

Yes, absolutely.

“Moderation” is a cope used by addicts.

Hey man, incredible piece.

Your deeply thought out discipline and equally well balanced enthusiasm is a model that instantly resonates with me. Thanks for sharing.

I'll share my thoughts, at your invitation, with a disclaimer: My fathering strategy is based largely on my lived experience - because it's what worked for me - and I'm hoping to repeat it with my daughters.

For context: I have 25 years of programming experience. Started when I was 11. My folks didn't even know how to turn a computer on, let alone enforce an educational playtime environment. But in my disk-hunting solace, I discovered that DOS 6.22 came pre-installed with this game called Gorillas, and I soon reverse engineered GORILLA.BAS in the pursuit of red bananas. Next thing I knew, I was implementing NeHe's OpenGL tuts, and by age 21, I was building database integration layers for a bunch of local companies - which over time evolved into the company I now run, which has provided my wife and I with a stable source of freedom-providing income for many years.

How is any of this relevant!?

We all want to be successful, and we all have personal definitions of success. I'm happy to be enjoying mine. And yeah, I'm a dad, so I want my girls to have that same level of success. Which in turn guides my fathering strategy.

When I first began reflecting on how to best raise them, I thought about my lived experience as a kid. I was lucky to discover my passion (Zero Cool had something to do with it), but what is important is that I discovered a passion. And then what is equally important is that I had tons of time to pursue my passion at my own pace. My folks were always right there - so I felt safe - but they never interrupted me. Then sometime in my teens I had a vision for a software company and the rest is history. Being exposed to successful and inspirational uncles from a young age helped form my world view extensively.

So back to your boy, and how I raise my girls (3 and 6): On a daily basis I expose them to as many different experiences as possible - be they arts, crafts, puzzles, and outdoor fitness - and crucially, I give them space - complete freedom - to pursue knowledge of the world around them at their own pace, based on wherever their interest leads them.

In other words my sole job is to create this safe, free, curiosity-breeding environment, and to guide them only when they have questions - ultimately allowing them the freedom to lead and teach themselves.

Oh and none of this disciplined routine stuff. This is all day. Every day. My wife and I take turns (mostly to give each other space to pursue our respective careers - she's a healthcare worker - 2020 was rough). We believe that our taking turns has the benefit that our girls get two completely different styles of parenting, which we think will help teach them to adapt. Of course we parent them together too - bath time is the most fun, and my rendition of Let it Snow is the stuff of legends.

So far we have learnt that our 3 year old is very peaceful. She's quite serious too - which I absolutely love (I've always been accused of looking too serious). She takes in her local environment with an exploration of every one of her senses, intently. Lately I've been exposing her to an abacus, which is proving to be a recurring interest. As for my 6 year old, she isn't as smart as her sister, but hearing her belt the lyrics to Frozen when I return home from my early morning row puts a joy in my step for the rest of the day that I suspect only other dads will understand. Does this mean performing is her passion? I reckon it's still too early to tell - but perhaps it is, so I take delight in listening to her sing in the car, and she takes delight in singing out the window as we drive past our eternally patient neighbours.

So may I ask you - how did you figure out that your boy's passion lies in programming? Or perhaps it would be more fair to ask, so that I may better understand your point of view - what is your goal with your parenting strategy?

If programming is indeed your boy's authentic passion, great! If not, well, you're obviously brilliant, so I have no doubt that you'll figure out his passion(s) one day. But I do think his having the freedom to play independently is critical.

With my girls, I often have to fight the urges I have to steer their learning in an effort to optimise their pursuit of each potential passion. But over time, I've become somewhat of a zen master at it. I now relish in the opportunity I have to witness them as they find themselves.

Heck, I hope it works!

Good luck with your boy. He does sound brilliant. I deeply respect the responsibility you mindfully bear.

I live with a family who have two daughters, age 7 and 9. I was able to rescue some laptops from office trash, running Windows XP. We had a lot of time during lockdowns and in evenings to play - whether that was on computers or with magnet toys, dolls, etc.

I first learned programming when I was 7, drawing a cube in Logo on a Mac Plus. I taught myself programming when I was 11, writing AppleScript to rip music from an iPod and download the Bible and Shakespeare books, and turn them into 1000-character Notes so I could share my book with classmates who forgot theirs. Yes, I used eBooks in school in 2003.

These notes are just a messy summary, which I'd like to turn into a real curriculum. Some of them were surprisingly fun for all of us (Escargot MSN messenger, binary morse code to send a smiley face using flashing lights, and drawing the result on squared paper). Now they watch a lot of YouTube, but the need to search for things on Google is motivating the 7 year old that reading/writing/typing is actually important.

Done: Google Chrome. Bookmarks. Save image. Age of Empires. Worms. Mahjong, Solitaire, eSheep, Asteroid, Alien Force, Bejeweled, stressreducers. Satellites, rocket ships, Lego. Rummikub. Connect 4. Slime, unicorn poo cleaning game. Dancing robot. YouTube Tayo, Miniforce, PJ masks, watchcar, Kaycee and Rachel. Google Images. Escargot MSN messenger server to teach typing. Anna discovered backgrounds, emoticons, nudges, fonts by herself. Your/you're. World map on paper. Maths homework +-*/, >,Difference between battery and power supply. Jokes emails, short jokes Reddit. FML? TED. Weebl. Minesweeper. Pic slider with photo of me. Bluestacks. Teach Kid Pix again with printer, Paint, PhotoShop to make line drawings for colouring. Teach Logo. Play with it. Google maps for navigation, Google Earth for satellite pictures. Wikipedia about Harry Potter. Web server. Run Pingtype. Teach basic HTML. Then Wordpress.org. Perhaps PHPBB? Field trip to server farm, observatory. Rocket Lab? Build flashing red and blue lights with LEDs and put them on toys. Computer hardware repair? Fit Win7 ultimate IDE disk to desktop PC. YouTube ripping. Music in iTunes. Movies in Kodi? Or VLC? Music creation? Copying photos from phone. Organising photos on computer. KMart, eBay, Craigslist, Amazon online shops. Writing programs beyond Logo. Some JavaScript game; Python web scraping. Charities: WWF, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, UNHCR, UNICEF. Google Drive, Dropbox only after having an email account. Outlook calendar, contacts? For all Anna's animals: Reirei, Titi, Snowy, Bunbun, Koaly, baby koaly, Annabelle, Kang Karen, Liky, Kitty, Uni. Writing documents in Word and printing them. Making graphs in Excel. PowerPoint presentations: lyrics, slides, photos. Typing Chinese, Korean. Lightbulb, power sockets, adaptors. Veggietales, Sesame Street

Advanced: not just "good with computers" but actually a dev. Windows: reinstalling, drivers, certificates. Linux: ssh, nano, cat, echo, mv, cp, chmod, tar, sudo. Mac: Time Machine, AppleScript Networking: dd-wrt, ipconfig, DNS, hosts file. TCP sockets. Hardware: common voltages: 1.5, 5, 12, 220. Electroboom. Soldering. Finding V+ and GND. Tracing faults. Virtual machines. Jailbreaking, rooting. XKCD, Hacker News. IRC. YouTube uploads, live streaming. OBS. Audio feedback. Imagemagick, ffmpeg. Tableau, PowerBI

These kinds of things can be used for interviews, not only education.

Bitmap graphics A1, D1, ... smiley face Code.org is logo Morse code, binary

Numberblocks YouTube Babybus super panda youtube Toca Life for Android. Among Us on Android. WeChat. Mathletics.