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Ask HN: Interactive programming lessons for Kids (Offline)?

by gygygy on 3/14/15, 10:31 PM with 3 comments

I have a little cousin brother who really loves learning about computers. According to him, he loves computer classes. I found out in "computer class" all they do is teach the poor kids how to use word and excel and how to save files in windows.

He is a very smart kid, and I tried to ask their parents to let him spend time online so that he could learn more about computers.

The parents are unfortunately scared of the internet, I tried to tell them about parental controls with no success so unfortunately, I don't see him using the internet for the next 4-5 years.

Is there any interactive programming lessons which I could download, put in a drive and give him so he could follow them without having to use the internet.

It honestly breaks my heart to see a very intelligent kid spend all of his free time watching soap operas with his mom.

  • by S4M on 3/15/15, 12:52 AM

    It's not interactive, but there are plenty of videos available on youtube (for example: this series explains how to make games with python and pygame [0]). Since he doesn't have internet, you will have to download the videos, most likely with youtube-dl [1]. So my suggestion is for you to decide what programming environment is better for him to take on, get the corresponding videos, and next time you visit his family you install him a text editor (I'd suggest Notepad++), the programming language, and give him the videos.

    Good luck!

    [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7joZ67mC6o&list=PLQVvvaa0Qu...

    [1] https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/

  • by mkirsche on 3/21/15, 10:08 PM

    I just fiddled a little with Scratch 1.4 (http://scratch.mit.edu/scratch_1.4/) on my Raspberry Pi. It looks like a kid could learn the basics of programming using Scratch (the Offline Editor) just by trial and error.

  • by brudgers on 3/14/15, 11:49 PM

    How about a book like Realm of Racket or Head First HTML and CSS?

    But keep in mind that programming is fun for some people and drudgery for others.