4 ms·
What age are they? Big difference between a 6 or 7 year old and a 13 year old! I've got two children (8 & 11) and done lots of volunteering teaching programmin
by jvvw 5y ago
What age are they? Big difference between a 6 or 7 year old and a 13 year old!
I've got two children (8 & 11) and done lots of volunteering teaching programming to children (and teach on a computer science degree as well!). I think a lot depends on the age and what you want them to learn.
Considerations: Do they read fluently? How is their typing? What sort of things do they actually want to programme? What is it that you want them to learn? Are you going to sit down with them and go through the book or just leave them to it?
There are a lot of resources these days that aren't books too which may be better. There are lots of online 'lessons' if you look at e.g. Code Club or Hour of Code. You've got games like CodeCombat and Erase All Kittens. There are lots of programmable toys of the robotic variety. You can get them doing stuff with Microbits or raspberry pis - the SenseHat is quite fun for example.
Not a programming book, but my older son really enjoyed Computational Fairy Tales by Jeremy Kubica.
I also wouldn't be too put off by some things being made simple. In a sense as a parent, you are trying to motivate them as much as teach them. And as a programmer yourself, you are in a good place if you want to say to them 'actually it's a bit more complicated than the book makes out'.
- wpietri 5y agoThis gets at something I was wondering. I grew up on books and love them, but that's when they were the best means for transmitting static information. Programming strikes me as a dynamic skill. I wouldn't recommend anybody learn to ride a bike via a book, and I suspect that programming is similarly best learned mainly through doing. Thinking back, even in the dark ages one of my gateways to programming was a programmable toy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak
- Mezzie 5y agoMy learning was all for play/toys. I just wanted to tell people about anime and make weird things like site counters that used letters instead of numbers or guest books so that people who couldn't code/afford the internet time for chat rooms could still talk about cool stuff. It turned out I had a knack for it and later I liked to help with things like emulation and make game mods or web stuff for fandom communities. I wouldn't have read a computer science book as a kid (and I was a VERY nerdy child who was a hyperlexic mental calculator). I agree that learning by doing is good, especially since when you run into a programming problem, you usually don't solve it by finding a book on the problem. So starting with projects also lets them practice problem-solving, which is a HUGE part of programming.
- martingoodson 5y agoJust wanted to say I was taught to program by a volunteer teacher in a youth club. I was ten years old. It changed the entire course of my life. This work makes a difference!