

What would you demonstrate to a kid to get him or her excited about programming? - practicalpants

I&#x27;m going to be spending a bunch of time with my best friend and his 8 y&#x2F;o, and since I&#x27;m already talked about as the &quot;computer guy&quot; (I&#x27;m a software guy really), I think it&#x27;d be fun to sit down and show the kid how awesome programming can be. An alternate way of phrasing this could be - what gets you super excited about programming, or that you think is just plain cool, that kids might also find fascinating?
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brudgers
_" I think it'd be fun to sit down..."_

I can't think of any way to guarantee getting a child excited about
programming.

But if I were coming up with a list of places not to start, ideas of what
adults think ought to be fun would be on it. So would sitting down.

Anyway, I will give making a list of positive stating points a shot.

() It is a long term project. The kid has been around computers and knows they
make pictures. There's no way to make a miracle moment for an 8 year old.
They've seen an iPad.

() Focus on the young adult ten years away, not trying to create a HN front
page prodigy.

() The interesting part of programming, and the part about which we are
passionate is not the typing. It is the ideas.

() What children love is being taken seriously and learning. The best way to
do this is by removing the shiny screen from the equation and having a
conversation - give them words to add to their vocabulary and ideas by which
to see patterns in the world.

() Be present. Throw a ball or kick one and instead of lecturing on technique,
talk about what computers can do. Only sit down at a screen if you are asked
to demonstrate. It's got to be natural...come to think about it, going for a
walk is a good approach.

Plans to get a child excited about _x_ are pretty much analogous to the
management methods of the PHB.

Sharing your passion is great. But it's your passion not the child's. Maybe
some of it will rub off and a seed will be planted. But it is a seed. It needs
to be given time and space to grow and though it may produce a mighty oaken
programmer, the odds are the child will grow to a maple or dogwood or redwood
or beanstalk.

And the only healthy approach is to go into the relationship being ok with
that.

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pepyn
I teach a programming class with ~50 kids, aged 9-15 and we got started using
Scratch [1]. It's not quite coding but teaches a lot of important programming
concepts, and is really easy and intuitive for kids to use.

After we played around a bit with the editor we checked out games that others
had made, and the kids were super excited when they realized they could
actualy build the games they had played themselves.

I'd let him/her play around in Scratch a bit, show some existing projects, and
then build a game/project together from their interests (which is roughly what
we do in our class).

[1][http://scratch.mit.edu](http://scratch.mit.edu)

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jamesjguthrie
I think, if the kid has a phone or a tablet, building a quick and simple app
for his device might make him think that programming is cool. Get him involved
in the process, build a fart app or similar, getting him to make the noise and
record it.

~~~
zachlatta
This, without a doubt, is my favorite idea in this thread. Wow the kid with
your "magic" powers.

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gregpilling
I downloaded Kodu game labs for my 9 year old.
[http://fuse.microsoft.com/projects/kodu](http://fuse.microsoft.com/projects/kodu)

He asked me "How do I use it?" I told him that I didn't know, and that he
should watch the tutorials. An hour later I came back and he had made a game
where all the characters attacked each other automatically. He showed me how
he chose the characters responses (if this happens, then do that). I thought
it was pretty cool. I still don't know how to use the software, but he has
made a bunch of little games.

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LarryMade2
If there is the time show him/her how to write a fun but simple game or star
with something already written that you can explain to them how its written
and how they can change the code to make it do other things (changing
formulas, variables/graphics, etc.)

I got into programming partly learning how to program, but also experimenting
by hacking up BASIC games, it was fun to change the rules, and or actions in
the game, and energized my desire to learn to write my own.

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benologist
Show him how to make his favorite game, it's probably just Angry Birds or w/e
with lots of tutorials available in lots of languages for you to get up to
speed and reduce to digestible simplicity, and then discuss the things he
would and can now change about it.

If that doesn't get him interested he's probably never going to get
interested.

~~~
Q4273j3b
Yes! Games are great.

A fun easy framework for game-making is LÖVE.
[https://love2d.org/](https://love2d.org/) You can show the kid some games
made using LÖVE
([https://www.love2d.org/wiki/Category:Games](https://www.love2d.org/wiki/Category:Games)),
do some of these tutorials
([https://www.love2d.org/wiki/Category:Tutorials](https://www.love2d.org/wiki/Category:Tutorials))...

Even if you don't know Lua, it's so easy to pick up
([http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/lua/](http://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/lua/)).
And figuring out a new language with the 8 yr old could be cool too.

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syath
Minecraft with the ComputerCraft mod may get their interest. Programming
little robots in LUA to help them build and dig.

