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

[Roy Vestal]

My son started playing with linux when he was 3. He's getting to the 
point now he's comfortable editing conf files, he's teaching himself a 
little scripting and wants to learn html as well. He's 11. My girls 
enjoy using linux, but aren't really into the scripting side. :)

If he can handle it, teach him. Let him enjoy it. I would suggest one of 
the "HTML for Dummies" and explain to him it's a beginners book, that's 
why they named it that way, or something like that. That way he can go 
at his own pace.

Most importantly, and you've probably know being a granddad, let him 
show off. I've found that pushes my son more and more. He's already 
learned how to use wine, and he's doing "tech support" for some of his 
friends.

-Roy

On 8/31/11 12:30 PM, Brian Henning wrote:
> If you didn't play recordings of RMS and Linus Torvalds to him in the womb,
> you're already behind!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On Behalf
> Of Paul G. Szabady
> Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 10:33 PM
> To: Triangle Linux Users Group General Discussion
> Subject: [TriLUG] How young is too young for linux-ish training?
>
> 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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Roy Vestal
http://rpp.linuxmaniac.net
   .-.
   /v\    L   I   N   U   X
  // \\>Phear the Penguin<
/(   )\
  ^^-^^
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"I sense much NT in you, NT leads to Blue Screen.  Blue Screen leads to downtime, downtime leads to suffering. NT is the path to the darkside."   - Unknown Unix Jedi