Teaching Lego Boost: A Beginner's Guide (2020) • Hacker News Board

Re: Teaching Lego Boost: A Beginner's Guide (2020)

#11

Post by thrower123 » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 4:29 PM UTC

detectiveninja wrote: post #10

I am in the process of teaching my kid (10) how to code, we tried all kinds of things, from programmable robots to scratch and nothing worked. I dont think there is uniform process for every child. In the end I just started spending 30 minutes every day with her and just coding, explaining and making small useful things. here I am logging the process: https://github.com/jackdoe/programming-for-kids

Ten is too young, I think. I also don't think it's something you can push externally, unless you want to stigmatize the activity and ensure that it is treated as a chore; like piano practice, or ballet dancing.

Re: Teaching Lego Boost: A Beginner's Guide (2020)

#12

Post by detectiveninja » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 6:45 PM UTC

thrower123 wrote: post #11

detectiveninja wrote: post #10

I am in the process of teaching my kid (10) how to code, we tried all kinds of things, from programmable robots to scratch and nothing worked. I dont think there is uniform process for every child. In the end I just started spending 30 minutes every day with her and just coding, explaining and making small useful things. here I am logging the process: https://github.com/jackdoe/programming-for-kids

Ten is too young, I think. I also don't think it's something you can push externally, unless you want to stigmatize the activity and ensure that it is treated as a chore; like piano practice, or ballet dancing.

I think programming is equivalent to literacy. So treating it like piano or math school is fine by me.

BTW now that she is beyond the initial wall, after about 3-4 months 30 minutes per day, she is enjoying making games and coming up with her own ideas. It is amazing how much you can do with just lists :)

Re: Teaching Lego Boost: A Beginner's Guide (2020)

#13

Post by eska » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 7:32 PM UTC

thrower123 wrote: post #11

detectiveninja wrote: post #10

I am in the process of teaching my kid (10) how to code, we tried all kinds of things, from programmable robots to scratch and nothing worked. I dont think there is uniform process for every child. In the end I just started spending 30 minutes every day with her and just coding, explaining and making small useful things. here I am logging the process: https://github.com/jackdoe/programming-for-kids

Ten is too young, I think. I also don't think it's something you can push externally, unless you want to stigmatize the activity and ensure that it is treated as a chore; like piano practice, or ballet dancing.

Disagree. Me and a lot of my friends started at 10-12, self-teaching.

Re: Teaching Lego Boost: A Beginner's Guide (2020)

#14

Post by Akronymus » Mon, Jul 12, 2021, 10:53 AM UTC

AlphaWeaver wrote: post #2

If you're interested in a more structured approach to Lego robots, you should check out FIRST Lego League! [0] It's a competition where kids learn not just how to program the robot, but important critical thinking skills, how to appropriately attack a problem, and how to make a measurable impact in their communities. FIRST makes it easy for parents to start a team for a small group of kids in your neighborhood, and p…

Hey, I actually participated in one YEARS ago. I would've been around 13 years old at the time. Man, the memories.

Altough, even back then I was using NXC over the graphical programming language that comes stock. At least for personal stuff. Such a major part of why I chose programming as my career.

Re: Teaching Lego Boost: A Beginner's Guide (2020)

#15

Post by Akronymus » Mon, Jul 12, 2021, 10:54 AM UTC

detectiveninja wrote: post #12

thrower123 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ten is too young, I think. I also don't think it's something you can push externally, unless you want to stigmatize the activity and ensure that it is treated as a chore; like piano practice, or ballet dancing.

I think programming is equivalent to literacy. So treating it like piano or math school is fine by me. BTW now that she is beyond the initial wall, after about 3-4 months 30 minutes per day, she is enjoying making games and coming up with her own ideas. It is amazing how much you can do with just lists :)

Are you just gonna stick to python or expand into other languages too? I'd think other paradigms (OOP, FP, Erlang, etc...) could be interesting to her too.

Altough, maybe not yet.

Re: Teaching Lego Boost: A Beginner's Guide (2020)

#16

Post by hajile » Mon, Jul 12, 2021, 1:33 PM UTC

thrower123 wrote: post #11

detectiveninja wrote: post #10

I am in the process of teaching my kid (10) how to code, we tried all kinds of things, from programmable robots to scratch and nothing worked. I dont think there is uniform process for every child. In the end I just started spending 30 minutes every day with her and just coding, explaining and making small useful things. here I am logging the process: https://github.com/jackdoe/programming-for-kids

Ten is too young, I think. I also don't think it's something you can push externally, unless you want to stigmatize the activity and ensure that it is treated as a chore; like piano practice, or ballet dancing.

It seems to depend. Some kids can have the abstract logic abilities at 10 (I did), but most brains don't start to develop those skills until closer to 12-14.

Re: Teaching Lego Boost: A Beginner's Guide (2020)

#17

Post by detectiveninja » Mon, Jul 12, 2021, 2:02 PM UTC

Akronymus wrote: post #15

detectiveninja wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think programming is equivalent to literacy. So treating it like piano or math school is fine by me. BTW now that she is beyond the initial wall, after about 3-4 months 30 minutes per day, she is enjoying making games and coming up with her own ideas. It is amazing how much you can do with just lists :)

Are you just gonna stick to python or expand into other languages too? I'd think other paradigms (OOP, FP, Erlang, etc...) could be interesting to her too. Altough, maybe not yet.

we will see how it goes in a year or so, i think the sooner we go to c and then into lisp the better

Re: Teaching Lego Boost: A Beginner's Guide (2020)

#18

Post by kipz » Tue, Jul 13, 2021, 9:55 PM UTC

anonymousDan wrote: post #9

What kind of age would people suggest getting your kid into programming? For example, for something like scratch is there a minimum age recommendation? I'm a bit reticent to give my son access to a tablet/phone etc given how addictive the bloody things are.

In my opinion, you can start with the core concepts super young (as soon as they can use apps on phones) using things like lego boost.

As they get older, I'd steer clear of what I think are complex languages like Javascript, Python, Java and so on (lots of syntax and/or lots of higher level concepts) and start with a Lisp (ducks).