teach-my-family

"Programming" for a 9 year old

I am looking for recommendations on a web site/software for providing an introduction to programming concepts for my 9 year old. I remember using Logo/turtle graphics at a similar age and would love a simple self-contained web site that gave a number of step-by-step tutorials. There is some neat current generation Logo software out t...

How to get kids into programming

I have a seven year old son. He is pretty bright and I want to show him that computers are good for something beyond playing games. My end goal would be to have him use a language (See Related question) to develop a program he can show his friends or solve a problem. My question is how do I get started? I am fairly certain I will hav...

What's the best way to teach young kids some basic programming concepts?

I might be asking this question a bit early, since my kid isn't even born yet, but I want to be prepared. How should I start introducing basic programming concepts to my kid? I remember typing BASIC code into my Commodore 64 and trying to get that little turtle to move around the screen at school. But what are some more current begi...

How and when do you teach a kid to code?

I've got a ten year old brother who desperately needs a constructive hobby and I am convinced he has the proper sort of wiring to become an adept coder. However, what he has in raw intelligence he lacks in patience and willingness to try new things. His overpowering interests are Legos and video games so my inclination is to find a way ...

Resources for Kids Learning C#

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 program...

What are some recommended programming resources for pre-teens?

What are the best places for getting my daughters interested in programming without actually knowing that's what I'm doing? :-) For example, I presented Alice.org to the older one as a storytelling program. I showed her Logo once, and she drew squares for an afternoon and forgot about it. ...

What's a good way to teach my son to program Java

OK, so I've read through various posts about teaching beginner's to program, and there were some helpful things I will look at more closely. But what I want to know is whether there are any effective tools out there to teach a kid Java specifically? I want to teach him Java specifically because (a) with my strong background in C I fe...

Convert wife/husband/partner to a programmer.

originally posted by Stefan: How many of you have had the thought of educate your partner and invite him/her to the beautiful world of programming? I once started to give my wife lessons twice a week, It was a competition between me and another programmer, we thought it would be nice to have our wives understand why we work as programm...

Advice for teaching programming to my little girl

My little girl wants to learn programming but she is still a little young. What would be the best approach to teaching programming to a 7 year old that still lacks a lot basic skills? ...

Whats a good age to get your children into programming?

I didn't really get into programming until high school, although I wish my parents would have introduced me to it at a young age. What are good ways to start getting kids excited about programming? I've been looking into SmallBasic and KPL as possible starting languages but would like some suggestions. If anyone has general advice or ...

What is a programmer?

My son recently asked me "What is a programmer?" when I told him what I do at work all day. While I satisfied him with my simple answer, I started to think about it somewhat more explicitly - what does it mean to program? What is programming to you? How would you answer a young child? ...

Suitable environment for a 7 year old

My 7 year old would like to learn how to program (his idea not mine, and he does things in the outside world so I am not too worried from that point of view. He already went so far as to take a game programming book out of my office to read at bed time.). The other day we sat down and wrote a very simple number guessing game (you pick ...

Introducing a teenager to programming

My 15 year old daughter is showing an interested in learning how to program, and I'd like to encourage her (she has mentioned CS as something she might be interested in doing at uni and she has definite geek-like tendencies - including a love of techie stuff and an tendency to dig around to find how things work). I'd be interested in ...

Best career options for people interested in 3D Animation

My 17 yr old sister loves animation and is a brilliant painter and sketcher in Delhi, India. Was wondering if someone knew what the best career option in animation was, the best international schools and future in this field. She has written and conceptualised an animated cartoon series that she wants to create. I want to fund her, but ...

Direction on programming language/platform that my teenager should go to next?

My son has dabbled with web pages built on asp.net MVC. So he knows some basic programming, getting jquery plugins to work, decent at html/css. He worked part way through a book on building iphone apps using x-code and half a book on python/google-apps. His interest may/or may not be waning. Literally he wants to help me in my consulti...

MATLAB for kids?

My seven-years old expresses large interest in computers (well, who doesn't? :). Since I'm mostly program in MATLAB, I'm thinking why not to teach him MATLAB. We did a small project with him (he had to solve as many simple arithmetic problems as possible in a limited time) and he get pretty excited. I coded, he watched and then tested. H...