Coding for kids

[Nate Swenson]

What do you guys recommend for teaching coding to kids 12 and under? Is google’s coding for kids initiative worth considering?

Thanks! I’m hoping sometime in the relatively near future I’ll be able to meet up with some of you again in person at a monthly get together. 

 - Nate

[James Grossmann]

Man, I thought I sent this a long time ago...

My oldest has been loving scratch.  I started him on arduino and he hated all the typing, but he almost dreams in scratch.  After coding in scratch for a while, he came back to the arduino and he's been enjoying that more as well.  He really wants to program games, so I've been thinking about pygame or similar, too.

It would be great to see you again!

James

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[Eric Wanchic]

I thought I would add two more things to this list I experienced this Christmas.

1. App Inventor from MIT (https://appinventor.mit.edu/). I have not played with this myself, but doing a little bit of research into it, it's similar to scratch with a lot more things you can do with it.

2. Lego Mindstorm NXT 2.0, or higher. No, it's not opensource, but I really feel that the highlight of this decade will be the further study and development of: robotics, cybernetics, and spirituality.

My boys got to participate in Lego Robotics for 3 years in their time at elementary school. It was really cool, and it helped my son understand programing and compass orientation while in 1st grade. So I found a used kit on ebay and my youngest is now diving into this with ease. While it is mostly legos, the second part involves programming the various components: motors, color sensor, echo location for distance, and button presses. Very similar to scratch, but more interactive.

New mindstorms sell for around $350, which is way outside of my price range. If your lucky, you can find one around $120, which I feel is a fair deal.

Eric

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