[vox] ISO: Good programming language to teach an 8yr old

[Bill Kendrick]

On Fri, Mar 19, 2004 at 11:47:34AM -0800, John Mark Walker wrote:
> I would actually recommend a completely different way: have him buy a Lego 
> Mindstorms kit. Learn the vanilla language the comes with the kit and then 
> "graduate" to whatever hacked-up software you can find out there.
> 
> This has 2 benefits: 1. it's easy for the kid to visualize the results of what 
> he's doing and 2.

Well, he seems at such a high level for his age, that I don't think that
step is necessary.  I would definitely be cool!

However, the big issue is cost.  I'd probably need my OWN Mindstorm stuff
to be able to figure out what to teach (whereas any 'runs on Linux w/o
special add-ons' languages, like Python, work 'wherever'... even this
crufty WinXP laptop I'm on :^) )

Right now, it sounds like the solution will be:  (1) wipe what's on the machine
and install Linux, (2) install Python and PyGame, (3) teach and learn ;^)


I DID briefly think of BASIC Stamps, too...  but really, that seems so
specialized.  And you need to buy all sorts of kits for it to be more
interesting than "look, a blinking LED!" ;^)

-bill!
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