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This has been an interesting topic for my wife and I. Our kids have very limited screen time, and do not have access to a computer / smart phone / iPad on a reg
by johnny313 9y ago
This has been an interesting topic for my wife and I. Our kids have very limited screen time, and do not have access to a computer / smart phone / iPad on a regular basis.
Recently, though, my 1st grade son, the oldest, found the book "Coding Projects in Python" (https://www.dk.com/us/9781465461889-coding-projects-in-python/ https://www.dk.com/us/9781465461889-coding-projects-in-pytho...), and read through it for about a week before asking if he could use my computer to try some of the projects out. I set him up on an old linux box with no internet access, opened a text editor (gedit), and showed him how to run his scripts in the terminal.
Honestly, I thought he would loose interest after a few days. But he has stuck with it for the last few weeks, working on the projects after school with minimal help from me (I work from home). So far, he learns what he is interested in, skipping around the book to find projects he likes. He has learned a fair amount in that time, and importantly for me, is learning a bit about how the computer works at the same time. Not sure where we will go from here, but the self-directed path is working well so far.
- softawre 9y agoYour son is impressive! My daughter is 3 now and I pray she follows a path like this. Obviously I will love her regardless ;)
- setr 9y agoEven if she picks the wrong editor?
- aloisdg 9y agoEven if she mixes spaces and tabs?
- TremendousJudge 9y agochildren were thrown from cliffs in ancient Sparta for less
- spike021 9y agoIf he doesn't have internet access on that box, won't that be a problem once he needs some library from PIP or elsewhere? I'm sure right now he's just using the standard libraries, though.
- johnny313 9y agoI agree, the setup now won't work for too long. He is using all standard libraries now - once he needs more, we will figure it out as we go!
- narimiran 9y ago> He is using all standard libraries now - once he needs more, we will figure it out as we go! Maybe you could install Anaconda (or some similar distribution), which has lots (almost 500) of popular libraries preinstalled.
- projectramo 9y agoI hate to sound like an fogey (because I consider myself a young fogey) but I think the most brilliant part of this is getting rid of the internet connection. The kids these days learn everything, but they don't learn to focus.