Ask YC: Best way to get my son started on programming?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3514460

by pensiveye • 14 years ago

9 17 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi all. My son is eleven years old and I'm looking into a good way to get him passionate about computer science and programming. There are a lot of resources out there. Does anyone have a recommendation on the best?

gaius• 14 years ago

Get him one of these http://sites.google.com/site/libby8dev/fignition - and nothing else, no PC, no games console, no smartphone. When I were a lad, we made our own fun. Out of rocks. And we liked it that way.

brudgers2• 14 years ago

PAL output might be an issue in much of the world.

gharbad2• 14 years ago

If your son is passionate about technology and computers, direct him to learning to code the hard way series. Or pick up a book that will teach programming by creating a series of simple games.

If he his not, stop trying to live vicariously through him.

yShrike5• 14 years ago

You'd recommend to an 11 year old to read a book "learning to code the hard way"? Really?

I think you're making a lot of assumptions with a comment like "stop trying to live vicariously through him". Would you have had the same reaction if the question was about sports?

gharbad2• 14 years ago

It's a series where you dictate written programs and then debug them. http://learncodethehardway.org/

If the question were about sports, then yes, it would be similar. (eg: football) If your child is passionate about football, begs to watch games etc; consider enrolling him in a football league where he will play football and buy him a book that explains real plays that wont talk down to him because he is a child. If you love football and want to see your child play football, but he has expressed no interest in it, it may not be A Really Good Idea(tm).

(EDIT: added link)

OceanJackson• 14 years ago

Empathy is practically the key to success.

yShrike5• 14 years ago

Here are some ideas (and we've used pretty much all of them)

Alice, from Randy Pausch (http://www.thelastlecture.com/) team http://alice.org/

Scratch http://scratch.mit.edu/

Codea--programming on the iPad. I highly recommend getting a keyboard. http://twolivesleft.com/Codea/

Art of Problem Solving has online programming classes http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/School/courseinfo.php?cou...

Good luck!

rdouble• 14 years ago

lego mindstorms

ohashi• 14 years ago

that's a great suggestion. I don't agree with trying to get them to like coding for the sake of it. Lego Mindstorms is a nice way to learn some basic logic and if the child enjoys building things and similar things, coding might not be that far a step away.

pensiveye• 14 years ago

This is where we started a couple of years ago. He has expressed a lot of interest in app design, and I'm taking the track of "walk before you fly." As an intensely analytic and intelligent guy, I think he's ready to get into the code.

Surprised no one mentioned HacketyHack. Anyone have any experience with that?

twelvechairs• 14 years ago

Find a nice open source game and start showing him how to modify/extend it.

brudgers2• 14 years ago

Resources about programming won't make a child passionate about it.

If he's interested, spending time with him doing some Alice or Kodu might have an effect over the long term.

But passions and interests build over time and at age 11 are heavily influenced by the interests of peers.

ddorian43• 14 years ago

If he likes computer games like i do try with Game Maker like i did. 2d game engine with drag and drop actions + scripting.

Ask YC: Best way to get my son started on programming?

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