Resources for Kids Learning C#

Question

My 11 year old son is very interested in programming. He has been working with Scratch for a couple years but has now outgrown it. I recently helped him install Visual C# Express Edition and he is very excited to work with it, but we're having a hard time finding good resources for him online.

He learns best by looking at sample programs, dissecting them, altering them, etc. Searching around I wasn't able to find many good samples for him to download and try in C# Express Edition. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good set of sample programs for a kid learning C#, or any other resources you think might be good for him?

BTW I'm a programmer myself but I've been almost exclusively working with Linux for a long time, so when it comes to Microsoft I'm pretty lost!

Answer 1

Code Project comes to mind. Lots of samples, projects, etc. available to play with.

Answer 2

Hmm... given that C# isn't really a "teaching language" (and that's not to say it's a bad choice), I suspect there aren't a lot of tutorials targeted at younger kinds. Have you considered doing some parallel learning and trying to pick up C# with your son? It might be a good bonding experience for both of you, and with your background in programming, you'll likely have a lot of insight to share, even if it's more language agnostic knowledge about things like algorithms, style, commenting, pitfalls to avoid, etc.

Answer 3

I would recommend Coding4Fun. There are some very nice projects out there which would appeal to an 11 year old. I recall seeing some games, screensavers, and even a sample which shows how to make a WinForms app look like it is bleeding (awesome for Halloween, eh?)

Answer 4

If games interested him (which is a fair bet) check out XNA, otherwise try to find some other interest, for example music, and then look for a framework/SDK that would let you create useful content quickly without having to do too much legwork.

Answer 5

If your son has already been working with Scratch and is going to be starting on C# then I would say that he is ready for a regular starting C# tutorial. Teaching programming to kids in general has been discussed several times at SO a few times. Here is one of the better results (How and when do you teach a kid to code). The principal concepts of teaching a kid to program are the same regardless of the language.

Answer 6

Code Project is a good resource, but many of the sample are more complicated than you'd want to start with.

For smaller sample apps, Microsoft released their 101 Samples for Visual Studio 2005

XNA is cool, but is somewhat complicated to get started with.

Coding4Fun is also good, but the amount of content isn't that huge.

Answer 7

first of all, I would love than my daughter would be interest in programming when she come to that age, and for that, congratulations.

Microsoft have Codding 4 Fun witch should be a nice start, and if he+s interest in Video tutorials, check the ASP.NET Learn website, he will find a lot of tutorials and video tutorials in VB and C# together with all the source code.

after that, code Project is a nice place to look to more examples :)

good programming!

Answer 8

Alice is based around story-telling. It's not programming specifically, but it teaching programming mechanisms. Instead of loop, it's more like "Repeat this" type construct. Worth watching the demo video though.

Answer 9

You might be interested in checking out Popfly. It is a system similar to Scratch but if you want you can begin adding your own components or do some extra javascript or C#. The integration of the multiple technologies might be a little too advanced but then again it might be okay. Again this is very close to Scratch but it might be fun.

As mentioned previously definitely check out Coding4Fun.

Congratulations and good luck.

Answer 10

I just found when zapping the web the Kid's Corner from Microsoft, he could have a go on this link as well :-)