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While I agree that Scratch quickly runs out of gas as kids get older, I don't think a Lisp shell is the next best step. The number of kids who are going to find

While I agree that Scratch quickly runs out of gas as kids get older, I don't think a Lisp shell is the next best step. The number of kids who are going to find recursion and math intrinsically fascinating is small. It seemed kind of obvious to me that something that runs in the browser is the best followup. Instant gratification, an absurdly powerful platform, and they can share it with their friends like they share anything else. If this language worked like ClojureScript, it'd have broader appeal.

rapind 5y ago
I think Racket is a good option, and what I'm planning to introduce my kids to fairly soon. Specifically DrRacket.
- troupe 5y ago
  Agreed. You have to be able to type, but Dr. Racket makes it easy to create, import, and manipulate images without dumbing down the coding process. This seems to be the best of giving good fun visual feedback while still letting kids experience the need to write syntactically correct code.
deleted 5y ago
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martyalain 5y ago
Thank you. You could have a look to this page http://lambdaway.free.fr/lambdawalks/?view=coding http://lambdaway.free.fr/lambdawalks/?view=coding and the two following pages.
fullstop 5y ago
Snap [1] goes a bit beyond Scratch. 1. https://snap.berkeley.edu/ https://snap.berkeley.edu/
zozbot234 5y ago
LOGO was essentially a Lisp shell with fewer parens, and plenty of kids used it for all sorts of things including math. The actual historical LOGO had a few pitfalls such as using dynamic scope for all variables, but nothing that could not be addressed.
- empressplay 5y ago
  Logo still is very much a thing and lots of kids still learn it, eg https://turtlespaces.org https://turtlespaces.org
empressplay 5y ago
turtleSpaces https://turtlespaces.org https://turtlespaces.org is an expanded 3D version of Logo that runs in the browser and has sharing features. And it does recursion and fancy math :)

rapind 5y ago

I think Racket is a good option, and what I'm planning to introduce my kids to fairly soon. Specifically DrRacket.

troupe 5y ago
Agreed. You have to be able to type, but Dr. Racket makes it easy to create, import, and manipulate images without dumbing down the coding process. This seems to be the best of giving good fun visual feedback while still letting kids experience the need to write syntactically correct code.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

martyalain 5y ago

Thank you. You could have a look to this page http://lambdaway.free.fr/lambdawalks/?view=coding http://lambdaway.free.fr/lambdawalks/?view=coding and the two following pages.

fullstop 5y ago

Snap [1] goes a bit beyond Scratch. 1. https://snap.berkeley.edu/ https://snap.berkeley.edu/

zozbot234 5y ago

LOGO was essentially a Lisp shell with fewer parens, and plenty of kids used it for all sorts of things including math. The actual historical LOGO had a few pitfalls such as using dynamic scope for all variables, but nothing that could not be addressed.

empressplay 5y ago
Logo still is very much a thing and lots of kids still learn it, eg https://turtlespaces.org https://turtlespaces.org

empressplay 5y ago

turtleSpaces https://turtlespaces.org https://turtlespaces.org is an expanded 3D version of Logo that runs in the browser and has sharing features. And it does recursion and fancy math :)