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Does your son have an interest in programming? Does your son have an interest in something related to programming? How are your son's reading, writing and typin

Does your son have an interest in programming? Does your son have an interest in something related to programming? How are your son's reading, writing and typing skills? Programming, by nature, is very deliberate. Misspellings and typos can cause a world of hurt for an experienced dev and could be even more frustrating for a kid. A lot of programming is less about the language than it is about the concepts. In light of the above, I am going to make an out of the box suggestion... Buy a Lego Mindstorms kit. Build a robot with him and then use the software to put together basic programs for the robots with the programming software that is included. You will be able to teach him simple if statements, loops, conditionals, variables, etc all without having to worry about what language to use and without him worrying about spacing and punctuation. When I was a kid I loved doing this. I was always playing with Mindstorms, setting up courses, and seeing if my programming lets them work their way out of them. I also would set up different courses for the two types of wheels that came with my kit. I had to learn that bumper sensors had to be out further than the wheels. I had to be able to turn on and off motors for the right length of time to make the robots turn. I could use light sensors and I even tried to figure out how to make it annoy my sister. There was some building, sure, but a lot of my time was spend "programming" with the Mindstorms software. Then I tried to jump to C++ or C# (cannot remember) when I was 9-11 and I was miserable. Granted, my parents had no programming experience and I tried to kind of do it on my own, but it was a bit much for me. I just didn't enjoy it and quickly left it alone. If your son enjoys Mindstorms, maybe in 12-24 months you guys can start with real electronics and a formal programming language. The cool part is (especially if you have an interest) this (ie. hobby electronics and programming them) is something that could be something you do with your son that lasts a lifetime. That is always a positive! Good luck and have fun! Edit: Here is a pretty decent overview of the programming that is involved. There are more tutorials on the channel if you want to get more of a feel for the interface before you buy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81hctQt6Cp8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81hctQt6Cp8

sergiotapia 9y ago
He's actually asked me about my work many times. I think I'm going to go the lego mindstorm route. Any particular "package" you recommend?
- mcgrath_sh 9y ago
  That is awesome! :) Asking the questions I did wasn't a judgement on you, by the way. I was hoping that they could judge the best "in" for your son. I honestly have no idea about the Mindstorms set. The one my parents bought me is probably 20 years old at this point. I also won a sweet R2D2 one at the mall at the tail end of when I was really playing with them. Maybe see if there is a set out there that matches one of his favorite fictional characters? Does he tend to favor things with wheels or things that walk when he is playing with toys? (ie would he rather program Wall-E or Iron Man?) Maybe do some basic research and present him with three options? Or maybe start from the "problems" he wants to solve and work with him on building/picking the right robot out. Some questions could be: - Do you want to walk around the kitchen? - Would you like to build a track for your car to follow? - Want to scare your little sibling with a giant scorpion while having plausible deniability? :P Lego seems to have a huge gallery of bots that people built [here](https://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/gallery https://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/gallery). They all may be able to be built with the "default" kit, which I found on [Amazon](http://a.co/15WLhTC http://a.co/15WLhTC).
- davelnewton 9y ago
  Just the basic, although I'm less positive about the latest iteration than previous. I'd also load up on some Technics kits for extra parts. There are also some great Lego mechanisms books that can be folded into Mindstorms work so it's not just programming, but also mechanical engineering and design. The more integrated it is, IMO, the better, by far.

sergiotapia 9y ago

He's actually asked me about my work many times. I think I'm going to go the lego mindstorm route. Any particular "package" you recommend?

mcgrath_sh 9y ago
That is awesome! :) Asking the questions I did wasn't a judgement on you, by the way. I was hoping that they could judge the best "in" for your son. I honestly have no idea about the Mindstorms set. The one my parents bought me is probably 20 years old at this point. I also won a sweet R2D2 one at the mall at the tail end of when I was really playing with them. Maybe see if there is a set out there that matches one of his favorite fictional characters? Does he tend to favor things with wheels or things that walk when he is playing with toys? (ie would he rather program Wall-E or Iron Man?) Maybe do some basic research and present him with three options? Or maybe start from the "problems" he wants to solve and work with him on building/picking the right robot out. Some questions could be: - Do you want to walk around the kitchen? - Would you like to build a track for your car to follow? - Want to scare your little sibling with a giant scorpion while having plausible deniability? :P Lego seems to have a huge gallery of bots that people built [here](https://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/gallery https://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/gallery). They all may be able to be built with the "default" kit, which I found on [Amazon](http://a.co/15WLhTC http://a.co/15WLhTC).
davelnewton 9y ago
Just the basic, although I'm less positive about the latest iteration than previous. I'd also load up on some Technics kits for extra parts. There are also some great Lego mechanisms books that can be folded into Mindstorms work so it's not just programming, but also mechanical engineering and design. The more integrated it is, IMO, the better, by far.