So - you want to Teach your Kids Computer Programming?
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How to Teach your Children Programming Skills
Parents all know their kids need as many computer skills as possible. But they don't always know where to start. This is particularly true when it comes to computer programming. Parents may not be able to program themselves, or if they can, the languages they know may not be ones their kids can learn easily. I am a mom - and a computer programmer. I have taught all my kids to program. Between them they have learned a number of different languages and so I want to share with you what languages are ideal for kids to learn.
I would suggest that you start teaching your kids programming skills as early as possible. If you start early, children will develop the logic and analytical skills needed for computer programming far easier than if you wait until they are teens. And don't worry, even if you have no programming experience, you can teach your kids to program!
By: Searchenginegenie
Logo - a good place to begin
Logo is a language young children can learn easily. My daughter started when she was 7. A turtle appears on the screen, and your job is to give the turtle commands to make him do whatever you want him to do. Kids get immediate visual satisfaction as they watch the turtle perform the commands given.There are various free versions of Logo to download. Here is one: FMSLogo
I am not sure how easy it would be for kids to learn Logo without a tutorial. I purchased a package for my daughter that included the Microworlds Logo language and The Logo Adventures book . For older students rather buy Computer Science Pure and Simple . My daughter will progress on to that when she is finished Logo Adventures. She really enjoys creating patterns all over the screen, and she has just started learning how to do animation. She has a horse galloping across the screen.
Scratch - for slightly older kids
Once your child has mastered Logo, or if they are upper elementary and you want to jump straight to programming games, Scratch is the perfect language. Scratch was developed at MIT and has been available since 2007. It is suitable for students age 8 through high school. With Scratch you can easily create interactive stories, animations and games, and then share them with your friends. But even thought it is so much fun, young people are actually learning important mathematical and computational ideas.
Alice - programming animations
Alice was developed by Randy Pausch and other developers at Carnegie-Mellon university. It was developed to encourage more girls to program - but has plenty of appeal for boys too. The boys in my class love it. There is no need to learn code - all actions are performed via drop-down menus.My class has 7th through 12th grade kids in it, but younger kids who have had programming experience may also be capable of using it. For more information visit Programming with Alice which was written by a current pupil of mine- and a fan of Alice.
I love teaching Alice as it is a fairly powerful language, and all the basic concepts of programming are clearly visible - even though students don't have to write code themselves.
Learning To Program with Alice (2nd Edition)
Amazon Price: $19.99 (as of 02/16/2012)
Used Price: $0.75
This book is written by the developers of the Alice software. I use it for the class I teach, but I think most teens could go through it by themselves as it is well written with plenty of examples to follow.
The Binary Game is a fun Tetris-like game to use to teach kids binary.
Visual Basic Express
My 3 older kids all learned to program in Visual Basic in middle school / early high school. Kidware Software has a tutorial with 10 lessons for Visual Basic Express which you can purchase for $19.99. However, you can download the first 5 lessons free (scroll to the bottom of their page). I first downloaded the free version to see how my kids would like it, then went on to pay for the full version. Visual Basic Express is another free language.With Visual Basic Express your kids will start to program with 'code' and they will produce non-animation programs eg ones that ask for data to be keyed in and then do something with that data. Although thy now have to learn the correct commands, if they have learned any of the previously mentioned programming languages, they will find the transition easy. But new programmers can also start here. It is suggested for ages 10 and up.
Python
Python is a powerful high-level programming language for students who have mastered some simpler form of programming like those listed about. It is also free and can be downloaded here. You will need to get a book for instruction - try your local library, or buy one of those suggested below.
Java
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What age students are your students?
As I add more resources to this page, it will help me to know what ages you are looking for help with
Share your thoughts and tips on teaching kids to program
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Sean
Jan 8, 2012 @ 3:00 pm | delete
- How about programming Lego NXT for robotics?
What's your take on they?
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Reader
Jan 2, 2012 @ 11:21 am | delete
- Thank you! This is very useful information.
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JOe
Dec 28, 2011 @ 5:36 am | delete
- What a great idea! Thanks for sharing.
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Buchamar
Dec 18, 2011 @ 11:26 am | delete
- Great ideas!
I feature educational kids iPad app review - Come visit!
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bluewren56
Dec 16, 2011 @ 3:32 am | delete
- Never too early to teach kids... love the lens.
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by merylvdm
I started programming in high school , have taught all my own children to program and am currently teaching a class to program in Alice.
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Hello World! Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners
Amazon Price: $19.63 (as of 02/16/2012)
This book has rave reviews on Amazon!
