Review: Python for Kids

http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2013/02/review-python-for-kids/

by gklein • 13 years ago

61 12 13 years ago

alenart• 13 years ago

As a non-technical person who decided to give this book a whirl, two things come to mind as I approach chapter 7 of the book: 1-it requires understanding of some basic algebraic concepts (as evidenced by the author's 11-year old struggles with if statements; I'd bet she struggled with greater or equal than, etc. concepts as well) and 2-the chapter quizzes are a little misleading and occasionally address concepts not taught in the current or any prior chapter.

Out of all the fits and starts I've had with programming in my pseudo-code nerd existence this is probably the most helpful programming book I've ever read and would recommend to kids above age 13 and adults wanting to learn Python.

markdown• 13 years ago

I won this book in a tweet-to-win contest by the awesome guys at [Pycoders](http://pycoders.com/) just before Christmas.

Took a month to get to Fiji, but it got here :)

My son is only 7, but we're going through it together one chapter a week. http://i.imgur.com/BLd9DNF.jpg

StevenXC2• 13 years ago

My wife purchased this book to use in her elementary school computer lab; tragically it likely won't be used as IT won't install Python in her lab. (More accurately, she has requests put in from October that still haven't been fulfilled, so she gave up hope.)

That said, I've found it to be a very cute resource as I prepared a short presentation on Python for a programming techniques course I'm auditing at my university (I'm getting my PhD in math, but do a bit of web development). Reading through it, it's very appropriate as a first book in programming, the first part of the book structured as follows:

* Calcuations and Variables

* Strings, Lists, Tuples, and Maps

* Drawing with Turtles

* If / Then / Else

* Loops

* Functions / Modules

* Classes / Objects

It follows this with a few advanced topics, and a walkthrough on creating a couple of simple video games.

While it's written for kids, I've enjoyed using it as a resource occasionally while the internet was out at my home. Highly recommended!

Gorgias• 13 years ago

She might be able to use CodeSkulptor.org

It was designed by a Rice University professor and has some very useful features for the classroom. Mainly that they can turn in their code just by sending the URL. It has a few idiosyncrasies but it is a very friendly environment for learning in.

pajop• 13 years ago

also:

http://ideone.com/ http://codepad.org/ or even http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/python

StevenXC2• 13 years ago

Thanks for the link! (And thanks to the others below for their links as well!)

pseut2• 13 years ago

Was anyone else disappointed it's 10 and up? I have a 4yo daughter that loves to type in Emacs; we set the colors and thats about it for now. I'd love more ideas for the next 6 years.

GuiA• 13 years ago

http://www.amazon.com/Super-Scratch-Programming-Adventure-Pr...

Let me know if that works out for you! I've never worked with kids under 6 years old; that being said, I had to teach 10-15 kids at a time, and they did great. So I suspect a 4 year old with an adult's undivided attention should work out just fine!

pseut2• 13 years ago

That looks awesome. Thanks!

abecedarius• 13 years ago

http://toontalk.com/

dfischer• 13 years ago

Related, http://www.kidsruby.com - Really awesome program to help teach kids programming.

Review: Python for Kids

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