No Starch has some great books for geeky kids/teens in their catalogue: https://www.nostarch.com/catalog/kids -- fun ways to learn programming Python, JavaScript, Ruby and/or Swift, programming theory, electronics and the like. Could especially be fun if she has some friends with the same interests :)
Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
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Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#22Female role models will help. So, biographies and this: http://sheroesproject.com/
You might also look for resources on the social and emotional needs of gifted. Lots of bright kids wind up "shy." Having spent a bit of time involved in the gifted community and raised two bright kids, I think this is not mere coincidence and some of it is driven by the negative social fallout that tends to come with the territory when people at school figure out you are "smart."
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#23I though kids how to program and the one we would start everybody out on (unless they already had a lot of experience) was https://scratch.mit.edu/ It is basically programming, with out all the boring typing. You can go from zero to making a cat make a sound, in a loop (fully guaranteed to make any adult hate you) in a couple minutes and it scales all the way up to making Mario (https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/49905542/), but way more discoverable than any "real" language. By the time you can make Mario, you can program for real.
It includes ways to show of what she has made to her friends, but it is not directly social (unless you are sitting more than one person at a computer, which can totally work).
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#24I'm a big fan of Processing or p5.js for teaching kids that age how to write code. The immediate visual feedback from a line or two of code creates a positive feedback loop that encourages learning. Shiffman's book Learning Processing is a great gentle introduction: https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Processing-Second-Programmin...
His Nature of Code work -- simulating nature through code -- also is really interesting but requires a little background in coding.
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#25A friend of mine has a daughter who really enjoys http://girlsmakegames.com/ http://makezine.com/ and the http://makerfaire.com/ have done a great job with a community that encourages kids with a variety of interests. http://www.meetup.com/ is great for finding people in your area who want to geek out together over something in common. I don't have great book recommendations other than https://www.amazon.com/Manga-Gu…
Just showed Girls Make Games to my 14 year old daughter and all she said was how condescending...
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#2612 year olds should be outside playing, not coding.
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#2712 year olds should be outside playing, not coding.
Are you telling me reading technical documentation isn't enjoyable?!
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#2812 year olds should be outside playing, not coding.
12 year olds can easily do both. (I certainly did.)
Re: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#29I'm not specifically qualified in any way to say what's best to get a kid started on computer science/programming is but I believe it's nice to let them take the path how things evolved naturally. If this is too much, (regarding programming) maybe start with C. I also believe it's good to read CS history. Following article is a personal favorite. http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/fp.html
I think Python or any scripting language is better to ease someone into CS especially at that age. It is rewarding and helps to see "Hello world!" on the screen immediately in a line of code as opposed to wrangling with IDES and cryptic messages for missing semicolons.
From experience hello world is actually a terrible first thing to show someone in a scripting language since it is pretty much a dead end. Seeing "Hello world!" is not really that rewarding when compared with something like
a = 3 + 2
print aRe: Ask HN: 12 year old tech savvy girl – books, programs, events, advice?
#30I know that Team Treehouse (https://teamtreehouse.com/) has a student discount that reduces the cost from $25/month to $9.
I think this would be a good option because the courses cover a wide range of topics so she can explore computing/internet basics, different programming languages and other digital tools (Photoshop/Illustrator) before really committing to one technology.
Treehouse also has specific tracks for app, game and web development which provide a structured path to learning the technology which can be good for beginners that might otherwise be overwhelmed.
Safari Books/O'Reilly provides free access to all O'Reilly books and videos for K-12 students. The Head First series books are particularly good for beginners.