Learning Programming: Suggestions for a Middle-Schooler?

[physics girl phd]

I'd like to start our middle child (age 11) learning some programming. It's been a long time since I've learned a new language, so I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions, including some texts to get for him (we restrict his online access, so I want his help to come from a book, not online documentation).

Thus far I was thinking about Python (which I haven't used yet either) and this book looked intriguing: http://inventwithpython.com/blog/author/admin/" , which is available as a free download) though of course I'd like to find a more general beginner book specific to the chosen language too.

At this point I'm open to both language and texts (I plan to get him started after the holidays). Thank you!

 

[Mark44]

You might consider Logo, a programming language that's been around for a long time. Here's link to a Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language ). There are several books listed at the bottom of the page.

 

[BrockLee]

I was very dissapointed by the pygame layout and setup, clippings from sdl, glut, etc.
for ease of interpretation and building upon(since the pygame framework is split into many small libraries)
I recommend Blender and python2.6, They work so well together and are easier to start and understand.

The Blenderartists.org groups have little resources for programming but there is a lot of conversation on gaming.
I forum there and for making games its the best forum to ask.

 

[physics girl phd]

Thanks so far...

I've noticed our university library has some books on LOGO, including "turtle geometry"... as well as some on Python, so I guess I'll start checking out these two languages on my own.

I'm less interested in him learning how to make games per say (especially since his Xbox is currently being withheld for less than stellar grades in Math and language Arts for not turning in assignments) than I am in getting him to follow some logical patterns and mathematics, as well as just typing something useful (rather than playing with the "word art" function in MS Word). ...He was thinking to himself that if he made games, it would be like the old "text-based" games I used to do on BASIC when I was his age.

That said, of course, anything that keeps his interest and gives him some skills on the computer rather than just using canned Microsoft software is great.

More suggestions, of course, appreciated...

 

[Edgardo]

Via http://baheyeldin.com/technology/teaching-kids-programming.html" and describes how he and his daughter work through the book.

 

[story645]

You might consider Logo, a programming language that's been around for a long time.

Something akin to logo is also part of the python standard lib: turtle lib

He might also like scratch, especially since it works with some of the lego robots.

 

[michaelc187]

If you would of said: I would like to teach ... I would of said:

Learning a high level language is worthless, theyre popularity changes like the wind.
if you insist, i would look into quicken (TM), and find a low level way into a database languauge.

At 11 years old, she'd probably own her own software company if anyone ever branched her down into assemble language.

Otherwise, I let her figure it out herself.

 

[sn3t]

I would see about looking into "Why's poignant guide to ruby" It's aimed towards kids and then also why's program called "Hackety Hack" that provides interactive lessons for learning the basics of ruby programming.

 

[story645]

I would see about looking into "Why's poignant guide to ruby" It's aimed towards kids and then also why's program called "Hackety Hack" that provides interactive lessons for learning the basics of ruby programming.

And if you're going to do ruby, http://shoes.heroku.com/ is a cute little framework for doing GUIs.

 

[sn3t]

And if you're going to do ruby, http://shoes.heroku.com/ is a cute little framework for doing GUIs.

Hackety hack is actually based around shoes so that would be a great next step after hackety hack.