I just wondered if there might be any other parents here that have given it ago! I've heard Raspberry and Scratch can be taught from the age of 4!!! (Seriously!!! :O)
My daughters only 3 but i'm hoping that she might follow after me to give her self a early start in career development but I started from 6 in computers, where as shes already worked out how to play games on these apps on the iPad..
If there are any parent developers, where do you start with teaching programming to a young age? I mean I started on from Neopets and that's where I started HTML and CSS. I would not teach her unless she had a genuine interest, shes only just fully got the alphabet down and already keeps trying to jump on my laptop to type..
Whats your thoughts?
I got TacoBot for my kids which is great. It was on IndieGoGo but I think you can buy them now. It's got physical buttons to program, or a mobile to do scratch like programming. Both my 6yo and 4yo love it.
I also recommend the board game 'Robot Turtles' it teaches the fundamentals of coding
Maybe I would go for coderdojo.com or something they use developers.google.com/blockly
I am not a neurologist or pedagogic person, so maybe you know someone to get advice from qualified people. Not a bunch of nerds in the internet gg
The question is what are her interessts and talents? and how could you help her develop them based on her needs? It's a tough question since every change atm physically forms her brain and builds synapses. And maybe she wants to be a programmer in the future or maybe she want's to be physisicist or whatever.
I don't have kids, so ... no clue.
So I don't know about the teaching stuff or influencing or exposing. This is your choice as a parent. I am not qualified besides uttering some thoughts about it.
I think that's the most useful that comes to mind.
Bright kid :-)
There are groups that teach young kids to code, such as this one in the Netherlands: coderdojo-utrecht.nl
It says you're in London, which is like 25x bigger than Utrecht, perhaps there's something similar?
It seems to be pretty popular. That particular group has a minimum age of 7, but it's just an example. They use Scratch as well, that seems like a great place to start.
(I didn't find raspberries particularly easy, but that was pretty early on, hopefully they've become easier? My instincts would be to go with a cheap normal PC).
I am not sure how to get them started or give them that inspiration but I have a story, my own story, how I got learned and understand what programming and algorithmic thought process is and got me into where I am right now.
So here I am 15 y.o, middle school teenager at computer class. Previously, 3 years ago my uncle who was a senior engineer at Bayer Germany, sent me a commodore 64 to figure out. Along with a keyboard ( that's pretty much what commodore 64 is ) bunch of 5" diskettes, a diskette driver ( sort of floppy driver but way bigger), a cassette player and bunch of computer programming books and his notes, all in German. All used for recording data. I know cassettes! it is so weird to think about it nowadays :) I was so pumped, bought a German to Turkish dictionary and started translating. Didn't understand any sh*t of course.
Anyway back to original story, at 15 school gave us two optional classes to pick. either music or computer. Computers at that time was really rare in Turkey. You mainly see them in big schools, banks or government offices. I said, I have commodore, I know computers, no clue about music so let's pick that one. First week they let us play with them, learn how to turn them on and of and some simple msdos commands. I was the hero in the class. :) then the teacher, whom first assignment was our school after her graduation also I owe lots to her said, I am gonna teach you guys BASIC. woha! But she said before wring a program you need to learn how to think like a computer.
Think like a computer. What does that mean?
She said;
We did this almost an hour and every single student was actually telling the exact way to cook Turkish coffee but she didn't like any of them. Then someone said,
Student X : First, you make a decision that you will make coffee. Then you will think where the coffee is. Then you will think where the pot and cup is. You will get the pot and put on stove..
The more he goes step by step, every single detail she smiled and
and then..That was the first thing that she taught us,
Computers are stupid. They know nothing. With right input in correct order, there is nothing they can't doThat was the algorithm, process, data flow, foundation of programming. And till this day still helps me to understand and solve any problem come across my way.Like I said, that's probably not the answer to your question, but I think it will help to get them understand and get into it.
PS: FYI I was not the student gave the correct answer :)