Learn to program to teach Children

pcuser

Hi Everyone,

I hope I am in the right section.

I have 4 children that are between 8 and 16. The schools that they attend do not offer anything other than a basic computer class (Both secondary and primary) . I realize how important coding will be in the future and would love to teach it to them. The problem is I dint know where to start. I think It will be either python, ruby or C++.

Im leaning towards python as they might find it more interesting if I also invest in the rasberry PI and create a few projects. If people here think it might be better to start with a different language than I will take that on board.

When I look online there are dozens of free courses being offered. Would anyone here have completed any of these courses that they can vouch for?

Ger.O.Mahony

How about this for starters:
https://scratch.mit.edu/parents/

Tom Dunne

The Scratch language is always a good start.

Also look for Coder Dojos in your area. These are essentially clubs where children get together with adults to, well, code.

Buford T Justice

I mentor in CoderDojo and we use scratch as an introduction tool. its brilliant for kids - Its a drag and drop tool that teaches fundamentals of programming and problem solving.

Start there and she how they go is my advice

pcuser

Thanks everyone for the help. I was searching "Easy programming languages to learn" instead of programming languages for kids.

There is a coderdojo not too far away they are full at the moment but have taken the Children's names for the future.

The scratch language website is fantastic. Very easy to navigate.

Talisman

Scratch is a good starting point for young kids but it might be too basic for a 16 year old.

There are a couple of books that I would recommend that can ease the learning to program process:

Computational Fairy Tales
Best Practices of Spell Design

Both books are written as a fantasy story for children which introduce computer science concepts and the reasoning behind them. I bought them for my son a few years ago and it certainly helped his understanding of things when it came to programming.

For a first real language, Python is the best choice - it's just like writing English. The Raspberry Pi can be a bit daunting at first for non-technical people who are used to "it just works" technology, but it's well worth the time investment.

I wouldn't advise you to use an online course to teach kids programming, in my experience they totally tune out as everything is being done for them. Get a book so that they have to write the code themselves to see the results. Cambridge University Press have a series of Coding Club books that teach Python, they're very easy to follow and if you're lucky you might find them in your local library.

RedXIV

Agree with Talisman above, Scratch may suit the younger, but the older kids will benefit more from some other languages.

C++ is not very beginner friendly but I've found plenty of resources online for Python and Java.

Python is great as it doesn't contain all the funny syntax that you see in code and it's actually very versatile.

What I found particularly crucial when trying to teach kids was finding something they are keen on. They will need to WANT to do something and this will drive them. I knew 2 kids in our local coderdojo who were absolutely determined to learn how to mod Minecraft which is written in Java. Because of their familiarity with the game, learning to tweak minor values here and there and seeing the results was very rewarding and proved to be the catalyst for their learning.

pcuser

Thank you so much everyone.

Il definitely get the rasberry pi and books that were suggested. I have always built my own gaming PCs, Modded the old Wii, Reflashed phones etc so the hardware part of the raspberry will be a doddle and I have lots of parts lying around the house. I just never really gave any thought to the programming part of it.

I always though coding was for the elite. But I suppose I have being coding the odd time and not realized it. EG Changing the value in cachemembuffersize in the advanced settings file in the app data folder for Kodi on my Laptop. As well as changing resolutions for older games from the . XML file. I realize this is pretty basic stuff but its a start.

Jim2007

Hello,
These two course might be of interest to you:
Teaching Programming in Primary Schools
Teaching Physical Computing with Raspberry Pi and Python

pcuser

Thank you Jim.