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Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

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Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#211

Post by balls187 »

bloopernova wrote: post #206
balls187 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think what your dad did, helped you become a grey-beard?

He helped more about a decade later when getting me into DOS games: He'd configure AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS which I could then look at after he was done playing. I'd attribute more to my own purchase of a PC when I was learning to walk after a road accident, and being part of the Windows 95 preview program. That got my foot in the door as a software tester and support tech. Becoming a sysadmin happened rapidly aft…

Hah!

Learning to craft a custom autoexec.bat to run Doom with 4MB of ram is how I got "into" computers as well.

I turned pale as snow the first time I hit (F5?) during boot to bypass it. I had no idea if what I was doing was permanent or just temporary.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#212

Post by jim_lawless »

I'm not sure about finding a computer that would both meet your idea of a fun machine and meet the aesthetics that they might be used to of modern computer systems.

Have you thought about introducing them to something where they could code/create online and could share their work? You might want to take a look at the online free Logo system at:

http://www.logointerpreter.com/

They would be able to click on the works others have published there and they could tweak the code to do other things.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#213

Post by qq66 »

ddingus wrote: post #181
m-i-l wrote: post #53

My daughter just built her very own Raspberry Pi 4 based computer[0] last weekend for her 10th birthday. Key points: - She picked the components herself (with dad's supervision to make sure they would work together), so the case and keyboard and so on are ones she likes the look of and wants on her desk. - She assembled it all and installed the OS herself (again with dad supervising but trying really hard not to help…

I did not know we had coined the term "IKEA effect" for that process of ownership, but it makes a ton of sense. Personally, I have never felt ownership of something I did not setup from the basics. Makes a ton of sense.

It was a Final Jeopardy clue last year: https://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=6979

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#214

Post by nonrandomstring »

I set my kid up with a Raspberry Pi 4, large key color lit keyboard, and monitor with HDMI loudspeakers.

Then I wrote her own "OS" - it's a bunch of python and bash scripts that run things she wants. As she asks for more things it should do I add a command and show her. So far she can:

1) Log in with name and five letter password* 2) whoami (she loves this) 3) music - it plays a random track from her music collection 4) photo - a random picture from our vacation last summer with her in it 5) sound - a random sfx plays in the speaker 6) say - text2speech the next word

The main objective is to get her typing and word recognition happening. She is 5, so definitely NO INTERNET. This summer I am going to add

7) talk - unix talk to daddy's computer on the LAN *

* we haven't talked cybersecurity yet, remembering 5 character password is still advanced

* I will regret this I know

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#215

Post by hnthrowaway0315 »

vaylian wrote: post #167
hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #77

Kids nowadays have too much distractions. Back in the day most of the entertainment kids got were TV and occasionally film but both are also family/friend activities. Then the personal computer showed up, and many kids wanted to make games because 1) That's so cool and 2) There was not many games anyway. They naturally learned BASIC because that was the only high level language pre-installed and then naturally learne…

> many kids wanted to make games because 1) That's so cool and 2) There was not many games anyway. Yes. And the drive behind this was not only technical, but also artistic. You have seen the works of others (professional game developers) and you want to create something along the same lines. And into a very deep rabbit whole we went.

Yep! And a lot of people learned programming by this way. There was very little formal introduction to such topics back in the 80s if one does not go into a privileged middle school.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#216

Post by throwawayrev3 »

snowwrestler wrote: post #112

Take any decent computer and point the browser at scratch.mit.edu. It’s got fun, easy ways for kids to learn programming concepts. And more importantly (to the kids), it’s got tons of fun content that other kids have made using those tools. This helps spread ideas and inspiration. They can see something cool and then “look inside it” to see how it was built. Kids want to be doing what other kids today are doing. Hear…

There's also Snap.

https://snap.berkeley.edu/

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#217

Post by hluska »

warrenm wrote: post #152
hluska wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have children??

I have several Thanks for asking

Wicked! What’s your goto when things are ambiguous? I find myself defaulting to stuff I learned from my parents when I was young. Not because I believe I was raised perfectly or in the One True Way, but because I don’t know what to do and that’s the pattern I default to. Any ideas??

I’d dig getting get of patterns and parenting in the moment, but it’s very hard (for me).

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#219

Post by tmaly »

billziss wrote: post #8

I had a similar problem a few years ago. While I never found the perfect machine here is how I have been introducing my now 10 year old son to the world of computers: - I bought him a Kano computer kit when he was about 7. The kit retailed for about $250 at the time and a kid could assemble it "like LEGO". It came with educational software that introduced him to programming languages, etc. (Unfortunately I do not thi…

I introduced my daughter to ScratchJr when she was 5 and Scratch when she was 7.

I taught her class Scratch. It does make a big difference which language you start with. I think how much you are involved with your child’s learning make also is a big part of the success.

I introduced her to MakeCode at 8 and we used the microbit to build a robot with legos and servos.

This project was such a hit that her principal asked me to teach it to the middle school kids.

Re: Ask HN: How can I make a “kid's computer” today as good as an Apple II?

#220

Post by ilaksh »

I have an idea. You could give them a reason to slave away at programming when there are 10000 other things that are easier and more entertaining: pay them.

Make their allowance have a bonus based on some objective function of their work product or effort in programming or whatever field. At the same time, try to encourage them to use it to explore things that interest them. Such as, creating and releasing games or programs for their friends.

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