Ask HN: Two kids (8, 9.5), two weeks, “learn to code”. Tips? Tricks?

[ronilan]

Between the two of them, they can operate PC, iOS and Android devices. Know how to signup, log in and out of accounts. Have worked with Google Slides, edited videos for Youtube and reskinned their Minecraft characters. They can type (slow) with looking at the keyboard. They have played with Scratch, Minecraft redstone/commands blocks. They google their problems and watch Youtube for instructions. Their math/geometry is 3rd/4th grade level. They want to learn "to code" specifically "Javascript". We have two weeks and we'll have to watch the Minions movie in the middle...

Tips? Tricks? Ideas? Watch for? etc. much appreciated.

[ramtatatam]

Somebody posted this on ycombinator: http://www.thehelloworldprogram.com/ Also this java-script powered game may be interesting (although quite a bite for newbies): https://screeps.com/ Apart from that - interesting question, I will be looking what others would suggest. My son is only 2 months but time passes realy fast!

[ronilan → ramtatatam]

Thanks for the helloworldprogram pointer. In this form https://www.youtube.com/user/helloworldprogram/videos it will be easily consumed :)

[logicrime]

Lua. Computercraft is a very mature platform for playing around with, and is powered by Lua scripts. Lua is a very simple language to learn, and Minecraft is a great platform that kids seem to love, and the tangibility of seeing the world they create be molded by the code that they wrote really has a profound effect on kids.

At least in my experience anyways. Semantics first, concepts later, this is why Lua is easier to learn than JS.