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Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?

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Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?

#1

Post by laze00 »

Father of two here. I started coding in BASIC when I was 8 and fell in love with computers. It evolved into a passion for building products, and it has been my life's career.

My son is showing interest in programming, mostly because, like other kids, he wants to make games. That's what got me started, too :) We've been working with Scratch and GameMaker, and I’ve been focusing on fundamentals like logic, structure, and problem-solving.

It's really about getting him experience breaking problems down so he can solve bigger problems. E.g., before the hero can shoot an arrow to defeat the bad guy, we need to be able to create arrows, move them, know their position, and know when they hit the bad guy. He gets it.

That said, I wonder whether focusing on CS fundamentals is worth it. Knowing fundamentals is always useful, but learning to collaborate with an AI is probably the more important long-term skill.

What are other parents doing? Have you found a balance? What tools are you using?

Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?

#2

Post by codingdave »

You are already on the right track. Fundamentals are far more important that trying to teach them whatever is current in the industry, whether that is a popular language or using AI. Those things change over time. Fundamentals do not. So keep on teaching those basics, and he'll figure out whatever the current toolkits are, as needed, just like we do.

Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?

#3

Post by wslh »

I think it's best to start close to the goal and move into problem-solving once something is up and running and needs improvement or optimization. Focusing on CS fundamentals isn't always worthwhile, unless there's a genuine interest in computer science or math olympiad style problems. Today, we can operate at a higher level since most core algorithms are already available in libraries and frameworks.

Just my two cents: if your kids aren't very interested or ready for that kind of knowledge now, you might find that in a few years they can learn it surprisingly quickly if they're interested then. What takes months to teach early on might work in days or hours later.

Also, don't forget to explore https://www.alice.org/ it's a 3D way to get started.

Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?

#4

Post by dybber »

I have run a codeclub for 10 years. Here’s some quick thoughts:

- Make them curious, if they are curious they will teach themselves. Example: don’t tell them what a for loop is, make a project where they really need it, but let them first to write it very verbosely without loops, then they will almost invent it themselves and be relived when you teach them (same style can be applied to most things)

- make projects that have low entry level, but where they can improve it infinitely. E.g. build an aquarium simulator or a city simulator using p5.js

- make them collaborate with other kids if possible, often they learn better from their peers than listening to their parents. Facilitate collaboration, and help them come up with more and more difficult projects, that require more and more of them, so they don’t stay on the same level too long

Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?

#6

Post by paulryanrogers »

codingdave wrote: post #2

You are already on the right track. Fundamentals are far more important that trying to teach them whatever is current in the industry, whether that is a popular language or using AI. Those things change over time. Fundamentals do not. So keep on teaching those basics, and he'll figure out whatever the current toolkits are, as needed, just like we do.

Which fundamentals may vary. College insisted I learn binary and bit shifting, which I've never had to use without libraries doing most of the heavy lifting. Data structures was more useful, though the business focus was at odds with where game dev was at the time.

Games in particular are such a vast mix of skills, techniques, and ever shifting market demand. I left game modding and went full time into biz software as my pixel painting and low-poly modeling skills were falling out of favor. Art fundamentals served me well enough, but I was far too slow an artist to put out high fidelity work at the new pace.

When my dad gave me QBasic, I bounced off it hard and thought I hated programming. Meanwhile I was programming games with tools like Klik-n-Play, Con, and batch files. Later in university I had to learn several programming languages and finally it clicked.

Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?

#9

Post by laze00 »

wslh wrote: post #3

I think it's best to start close to the goal and move into problem-solving once something is up and running and needs improvement or optimization. Focusing on CS fundamentals isn't always worthwhile, unless there's a genuine interest in computer science or math olympiad style problems. Today, we can operate at a higher level since most core algorithms are already available in libraries and frameworks. Just my two cen…

Nice, hadn’t seen Alice. Thanks for the rec.

Re: Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today?

#10

Post by esafak »

ramshanker wrote: post #7

Touch typing is fun amd magic for kids. 9 more keys left out of 26 for my kid. I clearly see her developing muscle memory faster than I did myself.

Mine noticed that I did not look at the keyboard and she did think it was very cool! I told her it was simply a matter of practice.
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