The kids and I play MineCraft with the fantastic open computers mod (http://ocdoc.cil.li http://ocdoc.cil.li). Doing this gives a good base understanding of w

The kids and I play MineCraft with the fantastic open computers mod (http://ocdoc.cil.li http://ocdoc.cil.li). Doing this gives a good base understanding of what is easy to program and what is not. When I'm programing they are pretty interested in whatever problem we are solving, and suggests ways we could solve them. I'm somewhat a believer in teaching kids things when they want to learn them. So I'm teaching my daughter who is six years how to code, even though I've not taught her older siblings yet. For actually getting started teaching though, I just use the JavaScript console in Chrome. You get live feedback, and there's a lot of stuff to make happen. Functions are monsters that hold arguments in their hands and either make things happen, or transform into something else. Variables are boxes. My six year old literally calls her programing "playing with the monsters". On another tangent, I think the kid's world right now in professional America has a little too much emphasis on STEM. It's worshiped like the football team in coal America or being a doctor twenty years ago in Asia-American circles. I love coding, breathe coding, and can't help but pass on, but I know that my kids have unique, individual gifts. I'm not going to force them code. I'm just going to support them if they want to, and coding is always going to be around the house simply because that's what I do.