We all know about Scratch, and you probably have your kid playing with Minecraft, but I want to hear from other developers about what are their best recommendations for teaching a child to learn to code. When's the best age to start? Should it all be visual at first and less typing? What about algorithms vs language?
I believe that Code Academy is the best tool to learn programming, especially if you want your kids to start with JavaScript and Web Programming. It goes from basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to React and Angular Coding.
My kids really enjoy codecombat (https://codecombat.com) and sometimes they will use codecademy.
A few years ago I tried to teach my almost-three-year-old how to play Robot Turtles. Robot Turtles is a lot of fun for the kids. Will it help them with programming? I can't say.
Both my sons are into Minecraft now. I started programming at age 8... my oldest son is 7. So time will tell soon (assuming he even follows in my footsteps).
I started with text-based games in BASIC (like Batman-themed Choose Your Own Adventure). I recall the first step was understanding what a variable is and how to use it. (e.g. ask "what is your name?", capture the response in a variable, and then build the story with the player's name and other choices embedded in the text)
Don't worry about algorithms at that age.
If he shows interest in programming, I would start him on very simple JavaScript in jsfiddle.net. React + Redux can wait a few years ;)
It uses block logic instead of actual coding - in order to get them to think like a programmer before learning the intricacies of a language.
Łukasz Schabowski
Sr. Systems Development Engineer at AWS
Try this:
https://www.makewonder.com/dash
My kids love it. It has a friend too:
https://www.makewonder.com/dot
Cheers, Lukasz