Ask HN: How do you teach you kids about computers and coding?

Thank you for this. My daughter will be 5 later this year and, I myself have started learning to code. I feel like it will be good time with my kid teaching and helping her. I even built her a game with tkinter to help with math and reading that we can do together.

I'd say we shouldn't try hard to teach our children about computers/coding from an early age. Don’t get me wrong; I do believe that engineering and programming are important skills. But only in the right context, and only for a matured brain willing to put in the necessary blood, sweat and tears to succeed. The same could be said of many other skills. I'm not sure about US but, here in South East Asia, school mathematics & science courses are more than enough of cognitive load for a 10 to 15 years old.

When I was in school, I was passionate about Chemistry, fascinated with the idea that how proper composition of chemicals could produce useful compounds until I got to play with actual physical instruments in the lab when I reached high school. I'd decided that I was going to become the best mechanical engineer to ever live (you know childish talks).

Alas, however, I started loving computers more than ever and now they are my life. My point is, Focusing on coding inflates the importance of finding the “right” method to solve a problem rather than the importance of understanding the problem.

(due to horrible layout and inability to edit, here is the list again, second attempt)

here is a incomplete list of my findings:

soft skills list: * don't push; * accept if they are not (yet) interested; * support emotionally ; * trust your kids; be patient even if it looks like bullshit; even if you know the solution, wait for the question;

tools: * coderdojo; * guest net; * don't try to create a website whitelist; * buy / borrow hardware they like to try out;

misc: * watch spin offs;

some remarks might need explanation.

don't push: if you do, any kind of motivation will turn to become the opposite.

support emotionally: one of the differences between adults and kids in terms of learning is how to deal with ambition. kids might start to cry or get aggressive when things don't work the way they planned. dealing with ambition is part of the learning process. the best answer for your kid might be non-technical, just hugging.

even if you know the solution, wait for the question: you can only learn when it feels like you have control on how to do it. if it's not yet time for the answer, there is no problem and no learning motivation.

coderdojo: look it up and discover how kids learn programming. best to wait for your child to discover projects of other kids.

guest net: separate your internet from your kid's internet. the risk of viruses or exploits caught from discovery journeys on the internet is extremely decreased.

don't try to create a website whitelist: I tried to maintain a whitelist of allowed websites and waited for requests to come. after less than a week I gave up. same is true for search platforms or websites designed for children. trusting your kid looks like the better choice to me.

buy / borrow hardware kids like to try out: we are buying heaps of hardware (raspberry pi / arduino / camera / smartphone), most of which financed out of our child's pocket money. his decision.

spin offs: spin offs are the most interesting discovery to me. my kid writes short stories to be integrated into his self created apps, so he can share them with other kids. math is easy if it is related to solving computer problems (compared to torture if the only reason is memorizing unrelated stuff)

comments welcome

I have taken the approach to just finding activities across a variety of topics like chemistry, electronics, programming, art etc