Computer Education Ideas for a Seven Year Old
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My daughter is seven and starting to work computer education into her home schooling curriculum. So far we have been watching the 1983 Bits & Bytes show which lays an awesome foundation in computer basics. But we are nearly done with that and I am looking for ideas in what I could have her do to keep her engaged.
She has done a little Logo programming and liked that. I'd like to get her starting on some Python perhaps, just super basic stuff. This summer, which is not that far away, I plan to get her a Raspberry Pi kit and help her build her own computer so that she has something that is really hers to use for programming and such.
Any one have project ideas? Or learning materials?
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What about Kano? http://us.kano.me/
--edit--
The more I look at it, it is really just a raspberry pi kit marketed toward kids. Probably not much to gain over your idea to get her a Pi.
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On Lubuntu (if I recall) there is a Python programming game.
You make an ant move a rock to get out of a room etc. Would be a great place to start. I'm drawing a blank on the name though.
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I have a little private web site for my 8 year old, she's been learning JavaScript because then she can use it front and backend, plus unlike Python, it's not like pulling teeth to just get a project started. She likes the fact she can do interaction fairly easily.
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The scratch programming application is pretty cool.
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@tonyshowoff said in Computer Education Ideas for a Seven Year Old:
I have a little private web site for my 8 year old, she's been learning JavaScript because then she can use it front and backend, plus unlike Python, it's not like pulling teeth to just get a project started. She likes the fact she can do interaction fairly easily.
Python is just a horrible language to code. I have never liked coding in it. I know people love it. I do not.
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I will be interested to see what you find for this. I would like to start my daughters on something, but they have so little time already because of the Japanese we have them doing on top of school.
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@JaredBusch said in Computer Education Ideas for a Seven Year Old:
@tonyshowoff said in Computer Education Ideas for a Seven Year Old:
I have a little private web site for my 8 year old, she's been learning JavaScript because then she can use it front and backend, plus unlike Python, it's not like pulling teeth to just get a project started. She likes the fact she can do interaction fairly easily.
Python is just a horrible language to code. I have never liked coding in it. I know people love it. I do not.
+1 trillion
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@JaredBusch said in Computer Education Ideas for a Seven Year Old:
@tonyshowoff said in Computer Education Ideas for a Seven Year Old:
I have a little private web site for my 8 year old, she's been learning JavaScript because then she can use it front and backend, plus unlike Python, it's not like pulling teeth to just get a project started. She likes the fact she can do interaction fairly easily.
Python is just a horrible language to code. I have never liked coding in it. I know people love it. I do not.
I dislike it from a programmer perspective and never use it. However, I hate BASIC too. But as a language to learn programming concepts I like it a lot. And while I dislike it linguistically, it is easy to learn, easy to read and extremely versatile. Don't think that I like it and would sit down at 99% of projects and say "Hmmm... I think Python is the language of choice for this one!" I would not. Only for BASH+ local systems automation tasks or special case scientific stuff where R doesn't make sense, generally. But for a kid learning, I think that it works really well because they learn minimal syntax up front, have some enforced structure and can use the same language anywhere to do nearly anything.
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@scottalanmiller said in Computer Education Ideas for a Seven Year Old:
@JaredBusch said in Computer Education Ideas for a Seven Year Old:
@tonyshowoff said in Computer Education Ideas for a Seven Year Old:
I have a little private web site for my 8 year old, she's been learning JavaScript because then she can use it front and backend, plus unlike Python, it's not like pulling teeth to just get a project started. She likes the fact she can do interaction fairly easily.
Python is just a horrible language to code. I have never liked coding in it. I know people love it. I do not.
I dislike it from a programmer perspective and never use it. However, I hate BASIC too. But as a language to learn programming concepts I like it a lot. And while I dislike it linguistically, it is easy to learn, easy to read and extremely versatile. Don't think that I like it and would sit down at 99% of projects and say "Hmmm... I think Python is the language of choice for this one!" I would not. Only for BASH+ local systems automation tasks or special case scientific stuff where R doesn't make sense, generally. But for a kid learning, I think that it works really well because they learn minimal syntax up front, have some enforced structure and can use the same language anywhere to do nearly anything.
I'm beginning the learning process with R and MATLAB/Octave. I think it's going to help me at my new position. Doesn't hurt to learn it even if I don't use it much.
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I have been watching the Kano project closely waiting to see what it does over the next few years for when my daughter is old enough. I haven't bought one, but it looks like a cool option.
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Also, stumbled across this site https://studio.code.org/
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@s.hackleman said in Computer Education Ideas for a Seven Year Old:
I have been watching the Kano project closely waiting to see what it does over the next few years for when my daughter is old enough. I haven't bought one, but it looks like a cool option.
That's one that I've been wanting to get for a while.
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@scottalanmiller said in Computer Education Ideas for a Seven Year Old:
@s.hackleman said in Computer Education Ideas for a Seven Year Old:
I have been watching the Kano project closely waiting to see what it does over the next few years for when my daughter is old enough. I haven't bought one, but it looks like a cool option.
That's one that I've been wanting to get for a while.
I have looked at this one too and forgotten about it. Thanks. I will need to. Look at it again.
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Hey there!
Friend of mine gave a good feedback about this one
https://codecombat.com/
Hope it gonna help!
