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When is a good time to get started? When my daughter was 4.5 years old she started piano playing based on a specific early children education. Now 3 years late

by eande 14y ago

When is a good time to get started? When my daughter was 4.5 years old she started piano playing based on a specific early children education. Now 3 years later she is doing really well and still enjoys it a lot. It sounds early, but if the education is done right I believe there is nothing wrong exposing them early on. For learning how to code (a little) I am not sure when it is a good starting point. It seems to me at 4th grade they have enough comprehension to learn some basic coding skills. For a parent finding the right balance for the child of having fun, learning and accomplishing something is probably the crucial part.

brianobush 14y ago
music is akin to coding. exercises in abstract reasoning are great! my daughter loves the violin and piano - need to think up a computer language grammar that is in music notes. my daughter is 11 and understands concepts when I present them to her, but I think to create a child needs to be a bit older. [I have read this somewhere, but have no reference.]
stfu 14y ago
The interesting question is also, what are you going to do when she starts turning against it. Are you just going to let her stop it? My parents put me into piano lessons at around the same age but by becoming about 10 years old I began getting extremely annoyed by it. Fortunately they somewhat pushed me through it despite my negativity towards it, but my piano skills would be definitely better today, if I wouldn't have been so averse the idea for many years during my puberty.
jongalloway2 14y ago
I tried getting my daughters interested when they were younger. They got bored quickly and pushed back, so I dropped it. I'm glad I did. My eldest daughter asked me when she was 10 1/2 if I'd teach her. It was so much better that way; if I'd tried to push it on her I don't think it would have worked.
Egregore 14y ago
Now my son is 7 and he showed interest in learning programming, but I found out that he is very slow typist and it slows the experience, so now I'm looking for good typing trainer games, so far the best I found is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/levels/level1.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/levels/level1.shtml If you know better keyboard trainers for kids please let me know.
- drbawb 14y ago
  I learned strictly on Mavis Beacon. It was all they used at my two private K-12 schools. However it clearly did something right, as I was typing ~120WPM by the end of grade 7. I guess I hold an unpopular opinion, but I think typing is honestly my greatest asset. Not because you have to be a fast typist to program - but it honestly feels like theres less barrier between the computer and my thoughts. If I could make one suggestion: focus on accuracy over speed. I took the opposite approach and it frustrated me to no end when I made mistakes because I'd instinctively backspace. Touch typing and accuracy, in hindsight, are more important than raw throughput.

by eande 14y ago

brianobush 14y ago

music is akin to coding. exercises in abstract reasoning are great! my daughter loves the violin and piano - need to think up a computer language grammar that is in music notes. my daughter is 11 and understands concepts when I present them to her, but I think to create a child needs to be a bit older. [I have read this somewhere, but have no reference.]

stfu 14y ago

The interesting question is also, what are you going to do when she starts turning against it. Are you just going to let her stop it? My parents put me into piano lessons at around the same age but by becoming about 10 years old I began getting extremely annoyed by it. Fortunately they somewhat pushed me through it despite my negativity towards it, but my piano skills would be definitely better today, if I wouldn't have been so averse the idea for many years during my puberty.

jongalloway2 14y ago

I tried getting my daughters interested when they were younger. They got bored quickly and pushed back, so I dropped it. I'm glad I did. My eldest daughter asked me when she was 10 1/2 if I'd teach her. It was so much better that way; if I'd tried to push it on her I don't think it would have worked.

Egregore 14y ago

Now my son is 7 and he showed interest in learning programming, but I found out that he is very slow typist and it slows the experience, so now I'm looking for good typing trainer games, so far the best I found is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/levels/level1.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/levels/level1.shtml If you know better keyboard trainers for kids please let me know.

drbawb 14y ago
I learned strictly on Mavis Beacon. It was all they used at my two private K-12 schools. However it clearly did something right, as I was typing ~120WPM by the end of grade 7. I guess I hold an unpopular opinion, but I think typing is honestly my greatest asset. Not because you have to be a fast typist to program - but it honestly feels like theres less barrier between the computer and my thoughts. If I could make one suggestion: focus on accuracy over speed. I took the opposite approach and it frustrated me to no end when I made mistakes because I'd instinctively backspace. Touch typing and accuracy, in hindsight, are more important than raw throughput.