Computer Programming for Kids: Help Needed

Free Republic ^ | 10/13/02 | self

[MoralSense]

My eight-year-old son is interested in computer programming. We went to Barnes & Noble yesterday, looking for some book (perhaps including CD or disk) written at his level, maybe a Basic book and compiler, something like that. And there really was nothing. We came home with a large book that shows how to create Lego robots with Mindstorm, but it really doesn't fill the bill.

What he needs is just some introduction to writing code, seeing how it works, line by line, getting some quick results. Any ideas or resources? Thanks.

[doodad]

My daughter has had very good luck with the dummy-type books. That and using very basic editors like arachnophilia and then viewing the source code.

[CanadianFella]

I started with Turbo Pascal 6 or 7 on my own when I was 12.

[wysiwyg]

Barnes & Noble is pretty much useless in that category. Borders is a little better, but if you have a MicroCenter in your area, they have tons of programming books, but I don't know about books for children. Anyway, I'd suggest searching Amazon. I suggest something about Visual Basic; there used to be a book aimed at students which included a copy of VB.

Good luck!

[Cultural Jihad]

They had no "Dummy's" type of beginner programming books? Did you ask the store clerks for help? As an idea, get an old Commodore64 system off of ebay and a Basic programming book.

[neutrino]

May I offer a suggestion? Try Java. It's not a bad language, there is a lot of material on it, and it's getting hotter in both the commercial and academic arenas.

Borland turns out a first rate compiler, and it's a free download! You can get it HERE

Also, there are lots of good books - and many free resources on the web.

[proxy_user]

This is difficult because things have changed so much. Most modern programming relies on library code to do the dirty work. This makes it easier for beginners, but doesn't teach you as much.

The standard and universal 'teaching' language nowadays is Java. It teaches you the principles, but protects you and helps you at the same time. But a child could get simple looping and calculating to work pretty quickly. However, the object model may seem somewhat counter-intuitive to children, compared to the old days of procedural Basic.

You can just download the standard edition Java SDK from Sun and start coding with notepad. For beginner-level stuff, do everything on the command line.

[Lorenb420]

You could try Logo. It was designed for teaching kids programming. The syntax is very basic, and you can do things one line at a time and see results.

Check out MSWLogo

[VoteHarryBrowne2000]

Good choice on the Lego Mindstorms but be warned that they are not cheap. To get the whole setup you will need to drop a couple of hundred dollars! The projects can be instructive too but be prepared to work along with your child since they are not always the simplest things to complete. My 5 and 7 year old want to work on the Mindstorms project everyday so there is a motivated interest to learn. Just be prepared to take control of the situation for a while until things are understood otherwise you will have a very expensive toy on your hands and no learning experience.

There is an old programing language called "Logo" that might be a good choice for you. I'm looking at using it myself, on my list of todo's. Check out http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/sbarnett/IThistory.html for more information and/or search on google.

[dawn53]

Check out this site:

http://www.resourcefulhomeschooler.com/files/ProgArticleIntro.html

She talks about how her 7 year old was interested in programming and the resources they used.

[Unknown Freeper]

Beginning Programming For Dummies at Barnes and Noble
Barnes and Noble usually has rows of computer books, even whole stacks on Programming. Are you sure you went through the entire Computer section?

[Scutter]

Java is an OK language to learn. A procedural language like Pascal might be easier for him to start with, however, the dearth of Pascal tools will make it difficult to get started.

If you do decide to teach him Java, you might find this link useful:

http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/robocode?Open&t=0226,l=awb

It's a product (free) from IBM called "Robocode". It teaches Java in a fun way; the programmer writes code to control a virtual robot, which then battles other virtual robots in a virtual arena.

[Grut]

You might try to find an old computer (Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Radio Shack Color Computer etc.) that has a BASIC ROM chip built in. You can usually get these at yard sales for $20 - $50, sometimes with accessories and books. Or you can look on eBay.

In the late '80s, computer makers quit supplying products with built-in languages, apparently on the theory that they could make more money selling the languages separately. Probably true, but it means we have now raised a generation of code consumers, not producers, and the code-writing packages that are available tend to be a little too 'professional' for young kids.

[MissHardihood]

Have your child try Visual Basic. It is fun to use, interesting for beginners because they can build a GUI, and the student will learn basic coding.

[Scutter]

One more thing I forgot to mention in my last post: you might consider teaching him Python. It is a very syntactically clean scripting language. I think it will be much easier for him to get started with for a number of reasons: the simple, clean syntax, no seperate compile step, and no need to get into "object oriented" concepts until he is ready for it. The tools are also free.

http://www.python.org/

[BureaucratusMaximus]

It sounds like your son is a little more advanced (in education) than most 8-year-olds. Good for you. Believe it or not, Visual Basic for Dummies IS a pretty good book to start out with. The reading is easy (and sometimes humorous)and should be suitable for your son.

I started out as a pre-teen with the old GWBASIC back in the MSDOS days. My father worked for Sperry-Univac (now Unisys) and he used to bring home alot of stuff for me to "play" with (early Unisys PC's, we had a Timex Sinclair 1000, a Commadore-64, and a Tandy 1000) . It was pretty cool because by starting out that early, alot of the hands-on/trial and error/early PC programming stuff has helped me out in the workplace presently.

[DB]

I see some here recommending Visual Basic. In my opinion that is far too much for an 8 year old to start with. I would recommend something far simpler and easier to understand like MS Quick Basic or even QBasic. If he likes that and does well then moving on to Visual Basic and/or Borland's Delphi would be a great next step.

If he does well there and he is considering a career in programming then Java and C will be required.

If he's interested in hardware then learning assembly language programming for various controllers and CPUs would be a big plus as well. If he loves complex math and complex programming then programming DSP's would be a great specialty area.

[UnsinkableMollyBrown]

You should try Toontalk. It is a delightful, game-like program, that teaches the concepts of programming. It is very fun for children and is similar to logo. There are a series of lessons to work through, and an robot assistant to give hints. My kids love it! It also let's the child create real working programs as they develop more skills. Check it out here ---> ToonTalk

[mlmr]

There are some good recommendations here. Keep away from the twaddle and use something that is fairly up to date.

[itzmygun]

Yes, and beware - I started on Qbasic & other linear forms and had a hard time with Java. It's not so much that it was difficult but that I just 'resisted.' Kind of like driving an automatic all your life then suddenly having to drive a stick shift.

I'm no expert, but I think that as soon as we of the linear programming generation fade away, everyone will be using object oriented programming like Java.