Programming

Everyone else's suggestions are great.

Get them a copy of Factorio, it's a game, but it's all about computer science fundamentals, architecture, pipelining, busing, data integrity, etc. It's a visual game, but it'll scratch the itch of programming. It'll get them to think.

Buy the hardware projects, the little ones with either a pic, an Arduino, something that does something physical. A little bit of programming. To make a thing happen. So they can experiment.

Look at the software robot competitions, there's a couple on steam, there's couple elsewhere, you can do it as a family project, whiteboard out the logic of what your robot will do, and you can write it together. And see how it acts.

Just make sure anything you get, has a very small feedback loop, so they can iterate very quickly. That'll keep them engaged and exploring. You don't want to get a daunting project that's going to take weeks to see any output. You want things on the order of minutes, or even seconds to see what happens

See if you can find a book on python, and work through it a bit. Sit down with him once you know some and try making something basic with turtle or the likes. Your goal is to keep his interest up and not make it a "studying" thing. For a kid the most important part is that he needs to be able to see results of what he's making. Drawing simple shapes, cool patterns, etc. in python is a nice way to start and it can teach all the basic initial things he needs to know.

There's also simple robot kits for kids that could be fun to play with, which he could eventually move on to basic electronics to after from.

W.r.t. safe browsing, I'd try blocking egregiously bad stuff with some DNS blocker that you either buy or host using something like pihole. Use it to block ads and well known "bad" domain names. Also have a conversation about it. (I'm not sure how much this helps here considering he's 8... but better then nothing.)

I found khan academy to be really good. My daughter handled the JavaScript module pretty well at the age of 9. If your son is already familiar with the concept of programming and can read well enough, I'd be pretty sure he'd enjoy this

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming

Well, Scratch is certainly a good starting point so I would assume he wants more if he's been all over it.

There are some toys and kits available but I am not really aware if they are any good.

If my little brother would make such a request I probably would want to go with Python and an Arduino project. Robots are cool so it would pique his curiosity while basics with Arduino should be challenging but manageable. The only drawback is that it probably would require some time investment on your side.

A cheaper alternative would be directing him towards writing some simple programs in Python or Java as the only setup this would require is an IDE and it would also teach him googling for information.

I think the safety online is the biggest problem here and the only thing I can think of is to only allow some domains...

Maybe some of these suggestions sound good to you, if so I'll gladly expand on them.

Also big kudos to your approach on the matter.

I'm going to go a slightly different direction and suggest something that has physical feedback like Adafruit's CircuitPlayground. It can be setup to use MakeCode, CircuitPython, or Arduino and there's a lot of good resources, both for purchase, and free: https://www.adafruit.com/category/965

In terms of keeping him safe online look into some content filtering for the whole home network, either paid or self-hosted.

Projects that act upon physical stuff are the most rewarding. Something simple such as building a simple Python script that interacts with a smart home API and turns switches on/off or changes light colors around the house are relatively simple and require no hardware/mechanics if you're not into robotics, soldering or circuit boards.

You've got a great kid :)

Make Code Arcade is a great next step if your child has completed the Scratch tutorials.

MakeCode allows building with BlockCode, but also supports toggling to Python or JavaScript.

Scratch and Make Code Arcade are both free.

For the Christmas present, get them a [MeowBithttps://www.microcenter.com/product/668481/kittenbot-meowbit-card-sized-retro-game-computer-codable-console) - a $50.00 hand held game system that plays the games they write using MakeCode Arcade.

One suggestion I haven't seen, get him a super-cheap laptop with Linux. The exposure to a new environment beyond his phone (and likely Chromebook) will help him get more comfortable with things outside the norm.

It will help him discover if he likes to "make things" or "figure things out" which are very different activities that both directly corrolate with programming.

I learned programming at about 12, by following tutorials for the Pygame python library. It doesn't do anything especially fancy, but it taught me many concepts, while I had a lot of fun. My first project was making the traditional snake game, which I think is a good level of complexity.

I don't want to undermine everyone's suggestions but I think they are failing to understand this is a kid, buying him a laptop and stuff is okay but doesn't motivate him to much.

Check for authors of books for kids. Invent with python is great, that was going to be my suggestion. But same author has plenty, like this one https://turtleappstore.com/book/ ... to echo someone who mentioned Minecraft (indeed, already marked a whole generation into computer science subject!). Good luck! Maybe you can even find something for you, like, how do we teach CS/ programming to kids? How come that moving the Logo turtle was alright for so many years, lol

You can't do wrong with: https://nostarch.com/catalog/kids based on your kid's interests and experience I would probably point towards any of the python proposals, but I encourage you to look through the catalog together and find one that sounds interesting.

This was a while back, but my cousin learned to program using Codecademy. These were self-paced courses using web interfaces, which was nice because they didn't have to install anything, they just used a web browser.

It looks like codecademy has a game development path: https://www.codecademy.com/catalog/subject/game-development

Their python chatbot course looks fun too: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/paths/build-chatbots-with-python

Do you have a linux machine at home? My 12 year old daughter is also wanting to learn to program and I've been updating the NakedMUD codebase to work with Python 3. It has been working for a while now but I'm still tweaking some stuff within the codebase before turning her loose on it. When it's ready I'll probably throw the modified code up on a server somewhere.

If you're not familiar with MUDs they're online text-based game servers (Everquest was basically a graphical version of one, supposedly even using code stolen from the most popular at the time). NakedMUD has a core written in C but the game engine itself is extensible with Python (and Python changes can be initialized without rebooting the server) and the world/NPC handling code is also extensible with Python. Users can dabble around with making changes to the Python scripts and then see the results real time, and in a gaming environment. To me it seemed like the ideal way for my daughter to learn programming in a way that will likely keep her interest.

keep him safe online

Not sure how well it works but u can try those family safe DNS servers like adguard I used the adblock ones and it's good, but not as good as ublock or pihole.

Pi Hut have a makers advent calendar. It's a Pico microcontroller and 24 projects. Maybe that's more a leading up to Christmas thing? Not sure how much programming there is, it might be more electronics. https://thepihut.com/products/maker-advent-calendar-includes-raspberry-pi-pico-h

I often suggest MIT App Inventor. Most kids are more comfortable with phone apps.

But this requires an android phone.

I'm not sure if it's good for your case, but I learned programming in Garry's Mod - specifically the Expression 2 chip from the Wiremod addon. It uses C-like code either running on I/O triggers or in an infinite loop, and can interact with Wiremod's other components or the game world itself.

I have no advice, but I can say that having a copy of K&R C in the house when I was a boy had a big impact on me. That was the 80’s but the book is just as relevant these days.

When I started out at about 14 I found a few programming books that really helped at my local library. It's really tough to keep motivated as a kid, but if you give him tools and help him find joy in the process he'll push himself to the finish line.

Good on you for supporting your kid, my parents told me to get off the computer and go outside every time they "caught" me programming.

There's a lot out there for Arduino which is a great platform for learning. Arduino is a microcontroller you can use to read button inputs and control LEDs, all the way up to controlling robots and all sorts of things. It's pretty hands on compared to a lot of pure software stuff and is often sold in starter kits for kids learning. Worth looking into!

If he likes working with physical objects as well (robotics) I can't recommend the Lego mindstorms or education series enough. The standard interface is very similar to Scratch so he'd feel right at home, but they can generally also be programmed with more traditional programming languages if using building blocks becomes too restrictive.

Small Basic is about equivalent to Scratch in terms of what you can do, but you have to actually write the code. It reinforces various coding principles in a more explicit way than Scratch.

The website has a printable curriculum that looks reasonable.

I think it's an excellent stepping stone.

http://smallbasic.com/

I can recommend PICO-8, if you have access to any windows/osx/linux computer.

It's a "fantasy console", a self contained gamedev environment that emulates an 8bit retro console (while using Lua, a popular and modern language), is super user friendly, and allows you to get a satisfying and fast feedback loop when learning to code.

There are many resources to learn it and a lively community

• https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
• https://www.reddit.com/r/pico8
• https://m.youtube.com/@LazyDevs/playlists
• http://discord.gg/EwQ86eq

Don't worry about Linux, and don't try to over complicate things. If you are set on going the Linux route, get a Raspberry Pi. It will give him something really flexible and cheap to experiment with later on.

Look into modded Minecraft. There is a mod called Computer Craft where you can write programs in Lua. One of the things that makes scratch so good for kids is that the results are instantly visible. This is important for kids.

https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/cc-tweaked

There are programs to control your reactor > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9fC3khXuj8

Unmodded Minecraft has Redstone where you can build logic gates.

Outside of what you already have check into a maker space or a computer club at school. Here in Atlanta there is https://www.codeninjas.com. Maybe there is something similar in your area.

I see a lot of good advice, so I'm going to suggest something different. Have your son watch this guy or someone like him do some stuff.

https://youtube.com/@SebastianLague

He just picks something that interests him and builds on top of that interest.

My kids (8 and 11) don't even have any interest in doing programming at the moment, and they like watching him build stuff. We watched the Geographical Adventures playlist twice.

If he's interested in 3D worlds, you could get him started with Java making Minecraft mods.

I've had good luck with edubuntu with my nephews and nieces. https://www.edubuntu.org/

For general Unix skills, get him a laptop and help him install a Linux distro on it. Show him a few different desktop environments, buy him a Linux magazine with a DVD and articles or projects. Then just let him try whatever he wants and promise to be there to help him fix whatever he breaks (by pointing him to docs, belong him write good forum questions, helping him revise search queries, etc.). These skills are perhaps a bit simpler to pick up but can eventually grow into scripting and programming skills.

For programming, start with simple programming exercises or koans, and maybe give him prizes (like a quarter or a piece of candy or something) when he solves them. Let him solve lots of similar problems/puzzles over and over as he builds his confidence; rather than pushing him to harder material, just offer harder material with higher rewards. You'll probably have to write your own exercises at first, like just translating arithmetic expressions from a notation he's learning in school to one used by whatever programming language you're working in together. Eventually, you can start to do online exercises together.

Once he has been messing with this stuff for a year or two, revisit fundamentals by working through a carefully selected introductory textbook together. You can include shell scripts at this point to tie the Unix stuff and programming stuff together, and maybe use a good Linux magazine or Learn Enough Developer Tools to Be Dangerous as the 'textbook' for that side. Then he'll at least know basic version control and surrounding tools.

After you've gone through a chunk of those basics together— full mastery is not required— sign up for an introductory programming class together at the local community college. Taking it together, you can make sure he's keeping up with the material, encourage him to ask questions, and help him with homework if necessary. If you want, you can also do this with networking or systems administration.

This is based on some things that my dad did with me, including a couple of community college classes we took together. (Idr exactly how old I was during those classes, but I think it was before I started high school.)

Google Scratch! Could be a good way to get started.

If he is interested in game development, I recommend buying a couple Udemy courses on Unreal Engine development.

You will need to make sure your MacBook is powerful enough to run the unreal engine development IDE.

But if it is, he will be able. To quickly put something things together and see the results.

My son(9 years old at the time) put together a small game over a summer via a udemy course and unreal engine.

Racket is a very good start point, everything you need even the IDE was bundled in the racket installer, as for the textbook I recommend HtDP 2nd https://htdp.org/2020-5-6/Book/index.html

I was going to suggest something like Kaboom.js for simple game development, but their site is currently down...

Get him a $390 Linux laptop and teach him python

There's Colobot, an old game with a C++ based language where you control bots through scripts.