

How to test if a child is interested in programming? - laacz

Assuming a child (10) has no knowledge of programming, is there any fun way of giving him a go at it and seeing if he wants to go on? I myself started with programmable calculator and continued onto zx spectrum. I had different motivation of doing so - no internet, just pure fun of messing with what you have. Nowadays computer is not something you need to make do things, it just does them all.
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eridal
My son (13) only gets interested when I hack something quick, simple, AND fun!

Last thing we hack was connecting a raspberry running espeak so we can send
audible texts to each other around the house.. by the end, he was really
hooked with the project, but at the start he really didn't care.

I learned to teach him without pushing him. I usually start working on the
thing myself, and during the project he will show interest, but never worked
the other way around.

He shows interest for other things, like maths, game theory, and books..
specially books! so I think we are from a different breed of hackers, and not
all of us learn the same way.

Try to find what's you child's learning type, and what are the things that
motivates and are fun to him

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kidgorgeous
Scratch works real well for teaching kids to code. There is a bunch of fun
programs for them to do that doesn't even feel like programming.

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auxym
I learned python at 14 (12 years ago) to get it to do my rote math homework
for me. Seemed like decent motivation at the time.

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vandeaq
Modding Minecraft might be a good place to start, assuming like so many kids
that age he is into it.

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Lorenzo45
I started in my early teens with GameMaker. It was fairly straightforward to
use, had lots of tutorials available on YouTube, and games were super
relatable to me and really got me motivated to learn more.

