Teaching my 7 year old programming

philz1982

What resources do you think are valuable to teach a 7 year the very basics of programming. My daughter is already reading at a 4th grade level and is asking me what and how I am doing when she sees me writing code.

There are thousands of books out there so I was hoping the forum could help me filter through the noise.

-Phil

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Comments

ratbuddy

Rather than a book, how about introducing her to Scratch or Alice?

--chris--

There was a thread on here a week...maybe two weeks ago where the thread title was asking about scripting in python and/or powershell.

Someone recommended a childrens book in that thread that was supposed to be amazing for anyone new to programming. If you can find that thread, I am sure it would be worth your while.

WafflesAndRootbeer

There were plenty of books for "kids programming" in the 80's and 90's that you might be able to dig up at used bookstores or failing that online. The old "make a simple game that your kid can play" sort of stuff. Then there are the "Turtle Programming" games that let your kid program a turtle to move and stuff. I remember those from Elementary school.

ally_uk

Get her a Raspberry Pi and a tutorial for getting python up and running

and then

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Python-Kids-Playful-Introduction-Programming/dp/1593274076/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381332249&sr=8-1&keywords=python+for+kids

Python for kids

colemic

Hopscotch App Aims To Get Both Girls And Boys Interested In Programming – ReadWrite Hopscotch app

This one appears interesting as well, moreso probably to you than 7-year old though... https://ifttt.com/wtf

paul78

Good topic - we had a similar discussion on it recently here - http://www.techexams.net/forums/off-topic/87116-good-books-kids-teens.html I am a big proponent of Scratch as @ratbuddy also pointed out.
You can find more info here - About Scratch | Scratch Documentation Site

Plantwiz

Alice is pretty decent to get young ones interested. Be certain your kid is actually interested and not just doing it because you get excited about it. I've a couple friends who helped their kid crash and burn with programming.

"Programming" is a cool sounding thing to tell others your kid is doing, but I was writing stuff in FORTRAN and basic decades ago too, but it was a passing phase. Keep it fun. Keep the kid interested. Never push. Which is exactly what Alice was about...it shows and offers kids more of an end-goal-in-sight rather than getting tied up in lines and lines of code.

If the interest is there, you won't have to worry about what is next!

Psyco32

Learn to code | Codecademy
Has Python, Ruby, JavaScript, HTML, etc. Online from basics to advanced.

NetworkVeteran

Scratch is the way to go these days. Teaches core concepts in a fun way. Some good books for it, too!

It's a great way to teaching programming first and languages second.

CodeBlox

I have an 8 year old nephew who sees me coding from time to time and is eager to learn... Of course I shouldn't just throw him in the pit with emacs and have him write C code but I sure am thinking about doing it anyways. Beyond that I might take the advice given here and investigate scratch. C was the first programming language that I learned (And actually it's the only one I know how to do anything useful with).

kurosaki00

Programming for kids?

Teach her VB

CoolAsAFan

+1 for Scratch over at MIT. It's absolutely brilliant for kids to learn to code!

4_lom

This is a great resource for learning Python: Python for Kids: A Playful Introduction to Programming: Jason R. Briggs: 9781593274078: Amazon.com: Books