<div dir="ltr">Hey Kenny,<div><br></div><div>One thing I really want to recommend against is scratch or mindstorm. I think they are both really fun and all, but no one that solely uses graphical code block type systems self identify as a programmer or has confidence to tackle issues that involve code. Honestly it defeats the whole point of the exposure by making code look like a toy.</div><div><br></div><div>Personally I used the Mindstorm stuff when I was young (10-13) and never thought I was cut out for coding because I was under the impression that I was just using a toy, not really understanding how closely something like scratch relates. It was only when I started writing some simple python games a few years ago when I realized code is something I have the aptitude for. Which is sad, honestly I wish I was "actually" exposed to code sooner.</div><div><br></div><div>Also definitely stir some interest and have a suitably challenging goal, instead of doing school like lessons. That code academy stuff is super boring and doesn't let you draw outside the lines. No interest means no progress ( At least for me ). With Arduino's and Raspberry PIs there is plenty of trouble to get into that might stir up some interest. Maybe suggest an elaborate electronically controlled prank if that is your daughters speed, or maybe something else! You know your daughter better than us. </div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div>Paul</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 1:55 PM, Tom Buskey <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:tom@buskey.name" target="_blank">tom@buskey.name</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">You can get the Kano OS separate from the RasPi bundle. If you already have a keyboard, mouse, HDMI TV (or HDMI to VGA + monitor) and an SD card, you have the pieces already.<div><br></div><div>There are UK based PI magazines (MagPI is online I think) with Scratch and other programming tutorials aimed at kids & kid like geeks.</div><div><br></div><div>FWIW, Scratch came out of the Logo work & both are MIT projects.</div></div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 1:46 PM, Kenny Lussier <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:klussier@gmail.com" target="_blank">klussier@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div>She did do a little with the Hour of Code thing last year, and I had thought that her interest had dropped off after that. Come to find out, she is very much still interested, just discouraged by the lack of exposure in school. <br><br></div>I have to say, I have never heard of Scratch. There are a lot of people suggesting it, so I should probably look into it ;-) It looks like a good fundamentals <br><br></div>I'm not a coder, so a lot of this is new to me. I'm a scripter. I do bash, some perl, some python... a little bit of LOLCode (no, really, you *CAN* haz VAR!!). I miss Logo. And Basic. <br><br></div>Thanks for all of the advice. I think I'll probably point her at Scratch. and see where she goes with it. If she really does enjoy it, then maybe a Kano is in her future, or possibly a Pi....<br><br> <br><br></div><div>Thanks,<br></div><div>Kenny<br><br></div></div><div><div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 12:49 PM, Matt Minuti <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:matt.minuti@gmail.com" target="_blank">matt.minuti@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><p dir="ltr">Also, did she do any hour of code stuff? That just happened recently, so perhaps that served as inspiration and could help guide the quest. Or maybe she just heard the rhetoric around it and thought it would be neat?</p>
<div class="gmail_quote"><div><div>On Dec 23, 2015 11:25 AM, "Kenny Lussier" <<a href="mailto:klussier@gmail.com" target="_blank">klussier@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div>Hi All,<br><br></div>My daughter has expressed an interest in learning to code. It's a non-specific, very general interest. She doesn't have a specific area of interest that she wants to learn (UI, game development, HPC, etc.), she just want to learn how to code. <br><br></div>What do people think is the best language for a 12yr old to learn? What is most flexible to use for different purposes? What tools are out there to teach a kid to code? Code Academy and the like seem to be a little dry and never yielded wonderful results for most of the adults I know, so other ideas would be welcome.<br><br></div>Thanks,<br></div>Kenny<br><br></div>
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