[TriLUG] Teaching Kids to Program

[Steve Litt via TriLUG]

On Mon, 17 Aug 2015 10:45:09 -0400
Ken MacKenzie via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org> wrote:

> So if you were going to teach your kids some starter programming, what
> language and/or ide would you use?

Python.

> 
> the following:
> 
> FreeBasic
> Logo (I am assuming there has to be some Logo implementation on Linux)
> Python
> Golang (probably not a good first choice but I do a lot in Go lately
> so we can "learn together"
> 
> I think I am leaning towards python, I think one of the things that
> makes me lean towards that is libraries like pygame which I think if
> they take to this will be right up their alley.

Great choice!

> If it matters the computer's in question are running either Mint 17 or
> Debian Jessie.  I am kind of halfway between the migration of moving
> Mint out in favor of Jessie in the house.

Another thing you can do is teach them to program quadratic problem
solvers. Especially ones that work on trial and error. Then they can
move on to third order equations, which are really difficult to solve
algorithmically.

My college age son had a math problem I couldn't solve, so I wrote a
Python program to trial and error the thing. Once we knew the answer,
we could reverse-engineer the process to derive it.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
August 2015 featured book: Troubleshooting: Just the Facts
http://www.troubleshooters.com/tjust