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I taught my 4.5 year old daughter basic concepts in 10 minutes using scratch jr on a kindle. The animation aspect and ability to edit the characters were a hug

by tmaly 9y ago

I taught my 4.5 year old daughter basic concepts in 10 minutes using scratch jr on a kindle. The animation aspect and ability to edit the characters were a huge appeal to younger children. There is a $5 book you can buy to get you started if you know nothing about scratch jr. There are versions for all of the tablets, so it is quite accessible. The version on the kindle is not super stable, so I would consider exploring the ios version. We also used a mouse maze toy ( Code and Go Robot Mouse) where she programs the mouse to navigate different mazes that we construct to find the cheese. I switched it up and instead of using cards, I have her physically move the mouse and input each step. My neighbor also purchased this for his 5 year old son after watching my daughter program it. Seeing physical results of your programming is another benefit to this method. I myself originally started in basic on the mid 80s by typing in different screen games. Eventually you pick up the different constructs and begin to make your own programs. I was successful with this method for my nephew when he was 12, ten years ago. I had him type in programs from the free Python game book online. He modified them and was pretty fluent in the basics. My wife has asked me to create a place to share these different resources we use to teach our child. I would be curious to know what resources others use.

dpflan 9y ago
I think that tangibility and playful feedback are great concepts for making the experience attractive - first superficially (how do you compete with iPad games :)), then deeper as a way to "see" the programming. I've brought in a GUI (Python's turtle [1.]) to help explore programs, computational and mathematical concepts, and to give more feedback and add another dimension. The introductory programming course for the BS in CS I obtained taught Python and programming/cs concepts and used a robot (IPRE Scribbler 2 + Fluke 2 [2.]). Did you create a place to share your different resources? [1.] https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/turtle.html https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/turtle.html (pick your python version) [2.] http://www.betterbots.com/ http://www.betterbots.com/
- tmaly 9y ago
  I setup a discourse forum on my site https://nextlesson.com https://nextlesson.com but I have to give my wife and her sister an overview of the platform. They will setup the categories.

by tmaly 9y ago

dpflan 9y ago

I think that tangibility and playful feedback are great concepts for making the experience attractive - first superficially (how do you compete with iPad games :)), then deeper as a way to "see" the programming. I've brought in a GUI (Python's turtle [1.]) to help explore programs, computational and mathematical concepts, and to give more feedback and add another dimension. The introductory programming course for the BS in CS I obtained taught Python and programming/cs concepts and used a robot (IPRE Scribbler 2 + Fluke 2 [2.]). Did you create a place to share your different resources? [1.] https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/turtle.html https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/turtle.html (pick your python version) [2.] http://www.betterbots.com/ http://www.betterbots.com/

tmaly 9y ago
I setup a discourse forum on my site https://nextlesson.com https://nextlesson.com but I have to give my wife and her sister an overview of the platform. They will setup the categories.