Teach them how to think in an object oriented way (then you'll see how to teach them web-dev), but the most important thing, for me, is to teach concepts not tools/languages.
Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?
61–70 of 138 posts
Re: Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?
#62There's already a lot of good advice here, but I really wanted to emphasize Scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu/) as a first step. A 7 year old (2nd grader) and 9 year old (4th grader) should be able to navigate their way through Scratch.
Start off by following the tutorial on the right panel when you create a new project.
Once you're done with that, your cousins will probably be exploring on their own. Help their exploration by printing out some Scratch Cards (https://scratch.mit.edu/info/cards/).
After they go through those, check out the Harvard Scratch curriculum (http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/guide/). There's full of exercises and activities in it.
By now you can tell if your cousins actually wants to learn to code. If they do, they'll be building things in Scratch on their own and remixing other people's examples.
I can go further as to next steps, but this should be plenty of material to get started :)
Re: Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?
#63Depends whether you want to teach code or computer science (and code). I wrote a book to teach 7-11 year olds to code in Python and Scratch and teach them some computer science along the way - I read a few other books out there first, and there's a lot of "just copy out this code and things will happen", which is exactly what I tried to avoid in this book. The reviews: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28232614-codi…
My son is 8 and started using Scratch at school. He had me install it on my macbook and he created a simple side-scroll game and a program to play the Jingle Bells chorus. I was impressed with how quickly he went from "just tried this at school" to "leave me alone, Dad, I know what I'm doing here". Seems like a good intro for kids.
You don't have to install Scratch! The old version required you to install it, but these days you just need to use the browser version. https://scratch.mit.edu/
Re: Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?
#64Teach them how to cook a recipe and then ... both how to delegate the cooking of a recipe, and to be an executant.
Basic skills in computing is understanding how things works in order to delegate your tasks to them.
It will be a skill working with human and computers alike.
Re: Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?
#65I teach. I have the kids learn Python between age 9 and 11 depending on when they are interested. We write games and learn the fundamentals of CS by following the curriculum of Rice's "Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python" class designed by Rixner and Warren. It has a Python interpreter and game library that compiles in-browser into javascript, which is a very helpful design for a first class, and for sh…
Why Python rather than JavaScript?
I helped an 8 year old get started in Python. It was an almost effortless process once we started with Python's Turtle Graphics. He started "innovating" himself when he saw what he could do with loops etc and draw with the Turtle. I initially tried Javascript but I couldn't think of an easy way to get him to the level of Python's Turtle animations as quickly. Python seemed more packaged and modular this way.
Re: Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?
#66A friend's kid loves Minecraft. He specifically asked me to teach him how to code so that he could eventually host his own Minecraft server. I started with a couple different approaches including Kahn Academy kid-coding videos, basics and WYSIWYG HTML examples. The kid didn't really want to "code" as much as he wanted to see concrete outcomes. One of the outcomes was a blog or forum to interact with his Minecraft friends.
The moral of this story is that it helps to focus on the interest of the children you are teaching, identify desired outcomes that will excite them and deliver the outcomes while secretly teaching them coding and computer science basics. It's like hiding the dog's pill.
Re: Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?
#67tynker.com is good.
Re: Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?
#68> building and designing for the web
please don't
Re: Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?
#69I think it would be better to teach kids to code. I would start with a project that makes sense to them, probably a simple game or animation. Learning the code, syntax, etc.. would be boring IMO but getting hands on might make them appreciate it and potentially become hooked.
Re: Ask HN: How should I teach code to kids?
#70I live in mexico city, and I teach python to a group of kids at burger king 2 times a week.. I didnt come up with a lesson plan so I use "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" as a really loose guide on how to begin programming..