Reddit mentions of Hello World!: Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners

Honestly, it really depends on how interested he is in the concept. Sure, he's into modding minecraft, but most kids are, and unless he's writing the code himself he's really only downloading an placing files. Also, computer capable is very vague.

Personally, I'd discuss if he'd be interested in learning more about things like programming himself, and talk it over a lot before you decide to buy it. Although it's not a very expensive item, if he's not going to use it it's a bit silly to get.

Perhaps get a kid's book on programming(EDIT: This seems like a pretty good starting point), or look into how to make simple mods with him for minecraft with him to determine if it'd be a good fit.

If he's interested, or better yet, passionate about the concept, it could be pretty great. Also, I don't believe this is something you could be too young to be exposed to, my son's two and we discuss these sort of things, it's just a matter of the language you use and how you present it.

Personally, 10 year old me would have gone crazy(in excitement) for it.

One of my main motivations for homeschooling was my dissatisfaction with the state of math and CS education in the public schools. The thing that baffles me the most about public schooling is the whole philosophy of "teach them once, they either get it or they don't, and then we move on". In my opinion, if something is worth teaching, it's worth teaching until the students understand it.

Lots of great options for math. At elementary school level, check out: http://stern.buffalostate.edu/CSMPProgram/ For middle school and high school, check out https://artofproblemsolving.com/ and https://www.eimacs.com/. For CS, at middle school level there are options like bootstrapworld.com and https://www.amazon.com/Hello-World-Computer-Programming-Beginners/dp/1617290920. At high school level, there are a bunch of AP materials, or something like http://homedirs.ccs.neu.edu/matthias/HtDP2e/. Also, tons of great free coursera and edX college courses for both math and CS. Here's one good one: https://www.edx.org/course/how-code-simple-data-ubcx-htc1x

Homeschooling gives you the freedom to try different approaches and figure out what works for you.

Maybe check out https://www.amazon.com/dp/1617290920/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_qg7aBbT33WTDJ

I recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Hello-World-Computer-Programming-Beginners/dp/1617290920

Though Codeacademy might be enough depending on how complex the addon is.

You'll also have to learn some Kodi addon specific stuff: http://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on_development

Autogenerated.

IAmA creator of logic puzzles and games that teach programming skills, and former homeschool dad and NASA researcher. AMA!

Hello Reddit!

My name is Mark Engelberg. I began my career as a virtual reality researcher at NASA, and then transitioned to the computer game industry. I designed and programmed adventure games, and helped develop compression algorithms that have been used in over 6000 video games.

I am now an award-winning logic puzzle designer with three new ThinkFun programming board games at Target!

My preferred programming language is Clojure and I use it to create tools that help me invent new puzzles. I am passionate about math and computer science education and have taught students at every level.

https://www.reddit.com/r/KeybaseProofs/comments/6oyua7/my_keybase_proof_redditenigmisto/

https://www.facebook.com/ThinkFunGames/photos/a.125775831476.130179.104029271476/10155657855076477/?type=3&theater

https://twitter.com/ThinkFun/status/898257651888517121

NOTE: Shortly into the AMA, a Reddit moderator mistakenly deleted the AMA post. I eventually got the post reinstated, but during the critical period of time for which ThinkFun had advertised the AMA, it was unavailable. For that reason, I'm going to leave the AMA post open for a couple of days, and respond to any further questions as time permits.

-----------------------------------------------------------

blurfocus :

What heuristics do you code into your tools for generating good puzzles? How

do you automatically evaluate the difficulty level and how enjoyable the puzzle

would be to solve?

enigmisto :

That's a great question. I talked about this in-depth in my recent podcast

interview on Programming Throwdown

http://www.programmingthrowdown.com/2017/08/episode-69-puzzle-games-with-

mark.html starting at the 42:00 mark.

-----------------------------------------------------------


SaturnineDenial :



What makes your logic puzzles stand out in the industry?

enigmisto :

One key difference is that each of my three new logic puzzle games is rooted

in a key computer science principle, so that playing the games also immerses

the player in computational thinking. Also, they are "unplugged" games,

whereas most programming games are costly electronic/robotic toys or online.

There's no other company that's doing anything quite like this right now.

-----------------------------------------------------------


mikejlay :



I homeschool my 11 year old son, how do you feel about the state of American

public schooling? What are some ways to get math and computer science

integrated into a home school experience? Thank you!

enigmisto :

One of my main motivations for homeschooling was my dissatisfaction with the

state of math and CS education in the public schools. The thing that baffles

me the most about public schooling is the whole philosophy of "teach them

once, they either get it or they don't, and then we move on". In my opinion,

if something is worth teaching, it's worth teaching until the students

understand it. Lots of great options for math. At elementary school level,

check out: http://stern.buffalostate.edu/CSMPProgram/ For middle school and

high school, check out https://artofproblemsolving.com/ and

https://www.eimacs.com/. For CS, at middle school level there are options

like bootstrapworld.com and https://www.amazon.com/Hello-World-Computer-

Programming-Beginners/dp/1617290920. At high school level, there are a bunch

of AP materials, or something like

http://homedirs.ccs.neu.edu/matthias/HtDP2e/. Also, tons of great free

coursera and edX college courses for both math and CS. Here's one good one:

https://www.edx.org/course/how-code-simple-data-ubcx-htc1x Homeschooling

gives you the freedom to try different approaches and figure out what works

for you.

-----------------------------------------------------------


knopitynope :



Between the three games, which is your favorite? Also, can you tell us more

about your virtual reality experience at NASA?

enigmisto :

That's like asking me to pick a favorite child! Honestly, each one was my

favorite as I was working on it. But I will admit that Robot Repair has

special meaning to me, in that it's my "love letter" to some of the key

influences in my life with respect to logic, programming and puzzles: Imacs

(imacs.org), Knuth (author of Art of Computer Programming), and Raymond

Smullyan (master of logic puzzles). I worked at NASA in the early 90s when

it took two $500k machines to render a VR scene, one for each eye. I built

VR simulations for the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission. We were among

the first to prove that VR was actually useful for something, because people

retained memories of the procedures as if they had stepped through them

themselves, not just memorized them from the book.

: porcupinewhy :

:

: If NASA said it needed you as an astronaut, would you do it?

:

:: enigmisto :

::

:: I am renowned for my asteroid-exploding prowess, so I am certain they

:: will be calling me someday. Saving humanity is what I do.

::


-----------------------------------------------------------


GGharjan :



Do you feel as if home schooling takes away a lot of the social aspect of

public school?

enigmisto :

Living in an urban area like Seattle, there was no shortage of opportunities

for social interactions between homeschooling kids and families. We'd have

park days weekly, for example, where the parents would hang out on picnic

blankets in one part of the park while the kids played in the playground and

the athletic field. It was the norm to see kids of different ages playing

with one another, which doesn't happen a whole lot at schools. And because

the parents were always "around", the kids had role models to help teach them

to treat each other positively and work out their differences in a mature

manner. My daughter chose to attend public school for her high school, and

yes, it was thrilling for her to be around thousands of other kids every day,

but there were a lot of downsides to the social aspects of public school, too

(a lot of peer pressure and potentially toxic relationships that needed to be

carefully navigated). I think her rich social interactions earlier in life

as a homeschooler helped her navigate those high school social challenges

successfully. So as long as you find a good homeschool community to be part

of, I don't feel there is a social downside to homeschooling. Your mileage

may vary, of course, depending on where you live, your kids' personalities,

etc.

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IamAbot_v01. Alpha version. Under care of /u/oppon.
Comment 1 of 2
Updated at 2017-08-18 14:40:19.406219

This is the final update to this thread

I highly recommend Hello World!: Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners. I started my son at 6 years old with it and he was off and running within 2 days.

Ruby is a fine programming language, but there's more engaging resources for Python, scratch, and JavaScript at the moment.

If you have no previous programming experience, scratch is a whole lot of fun quickly. It's a bit "kiddy", but easy to learn the basics of programming and have fun doing it. I recommend picking up this book.

When you're through that, if you want more (or you've already done some basic programming sometime in the past) I'd move to python. This book is similarly engaging and will get your legs under you. By the time you're done, you'll be in a good position to know enough about python to what you want to learn next if anything.

After doing some of these books or other tutorials, it's important to find something you want to use that you can build. That's why I like these game based books: you get to learn how to make games that are fun to play for a bit anyway. Anyway, think about your other hobbies and try to come up with a useful program you can make for them. Programming is easier to stick with when there's an end goal beyond learning programming.