[TriLUG] How young is too young for linux-ish training?

[David Brain]

Hi,

For a 'fun' learning language Scratch (http://http://scratch.mit.edu/)
is worth a look.  It's a graphical (i.e. drag and drop blocks)
programming language, is really quite straightforward to the point
where a 8-10 year old should be able to start making something like an
animation/ simple game on their own fairly quickly.

It has all the structure of a 'normal' language, loops, conditions,
variables (and really some threading and some sorta-kinda OO concepts)
.

David.

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 9:19 AM, Ron Kelley <rkelleyrtp at gmail.com> wrote:
> Paul,
>
> For what its worth, my 11yr old (Jon) is very similar to your grandson (math, science, sports, etc) and is considered the tech "nerd" at school.  He started working with his Mac laptop a few years back and has been drawn into the tech world ever since.  We discussed your grandson on the way to school this morning and he suggested using the free "webs" website builder (www.webs.com).  Jon created and hosts his own website for himself and his buddies - including building the site, managing user accounts, etc.  From his perspective, using "webs" is very easy and gives him (almost) unlimited creativity on developing something on his own.  Plus, it teaches him about presentation, layout, organization, etc (and the fact it is not as easy as it looks to build a web site).
>
> Another thing I will mention is the Lego MindStorm robot kit.  If your grandson is into Legos, this is definitely the kit to get.  Aside from building the different models, he can program the robot using either the included GUI tool (PC, Mac) or via "robot-c".  Ever since Jon opened the programming guide for the MindStorm kit, he has been heads-down learning about loops, logic statements, variables, etc.  Plus, he actually gets to see his finished product in just a few minutes.  It is really cool when he asks for help debugging his program because I know his brain is working hard!  He can tell me step-by-step what is supposed to happen, and I get to help him understand what he missed (forgot to program a variable, forgot to reset the sensors, etc).  Plus, both you and he can work together building the models and programming the robot.
>
> Sorry for rambling - hope this helps!
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> -----------------------------
> Ron Kelley
> rkelleyrtp at gmail.com
>
>
>
> On Aug 30, 2011, at 10:33 PM, Paul G. Szabady wrote:
>
>> Greetings TriLUGers!
>>
>> My 7 year-old grandson has been asking me for close to a year to teach him to build a website.  Not knowing how to go about teaching someone that young, I finally just put up a site for him.  He loved it for about a week, then started asking me to show him how to make changes.  I would love to begin teaching him some basic html or maybe even some basic programming, but I'm stumped.  How and where to begin?  Has anyone ever run into this type of issue before?  And/Or does anyone have any suggestions on where to begin?  I don't want to push him into something that would cause resentment.  On the other hand, he is academically gifted in math and reading, loves science and excels in sports.  So he already has a track record of pushing himself.  If there's a way to "learn" together, I would love to have special papa/grandson time if there are any classes that we could attend.
>>
>> Any/All thoughts are welcome!
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Paul
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