Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources On-line computer programming class?

Bumping this thread up as we are also looking for options. I went back through some older threads as well. Thoughts on Scratch? DS7 has a book about it and wants to try it, but had heard it wasn't very useful as a language... definitely out of my depth here.

Languages come and go and change. IT is a bit of a fad of the month club. The one consistency is programmatic thinking. Scratch is really good for establishing the core of programmatic thinking without getting bogged down in syntax.

It's also free. Using the online version you can load other people's programs to see how to do things or change numbers here and there to experiment and such.

Try StudyApps (on Google Play store) for something different perhaps? Its great content covers Maths, Natural Science and English Grade 1-7 - It certainly keeps the child's focus!

I agree with ZS. Learning to think in a programming language and understand the basic constructs is the most important part. If it happens to be a language that is widely used, bonus, but anything that is user friendly is even better. For younger kids I especially wouldn't get too hung up on it because things change.

The first language I learned was obsolete when I took the course in university (they switched everything the next year to C/C++) but it introduced me to all of the concepts enough that I was able to figure out C/C++ in second year. I've used 12 languages in my professional life (which spans hardware, software, firmware and various scripting languages) and there are more similarities than differences between them. Each language has it's own quirks and tricks but for kids starting out it is about learning the concepts of if statements, case statements, goto, repeat, for loop, etc. Those are the basic building blocks for everything else.

Some people, most famously Edsger Dijkstra in "How do we tell truths that might hurt?", have asserted that learning a language with "bad" features, such as goto in Basic, teaches bad habits. I don't agree but wonder if the assertion could be tested.

Thank you! We'll go ahead and try Scratch since he's already begging for it (and since it is free). What other languages should we be thinking about after Scratch? Java? Python?

The Java equivalent of the Python program

print("Hello, World")

is

public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, World");
}
}

so I suggest Python next. It is more concise and fun. Java is of course a widely-used language and is also the language used in AP Computer Science.

Python or Scratch are good for the start. (I too agree with ZS above.)

AOPS has 3 programming courses:
Intro to Programming (Python)
Intermediate Python
Java Programming (w/ data structures)

AOPS Wiki Python : http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/Getting_Started_With_Python_Programming .

Free online textbook for the 2 AOPS Python classes : http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english3e .

The older python textbook (also good): http://www.amazon.com/Python-Programming-Absolute-Beginner-Edition/dp/1435455002 .

Bumping for DD. She's doing some prep work for her intro CS courses in the fall.

She's familiar with Scratch (though I don't know if she KNOWS that this is what she's used), and Java at Codeacademy semes to have come quite easily to her.

At the rate that she is blowing through it, though, AOPS might be a good idea next.

(Have I mentioned lately how much I love this place?? )

What language(s) do the intro CS courses use? Start with them. Some intro courses expect a rudimentary knowledge of Unix. For example, Harvard's CS50 requires students to download and use a Linux virtual machine that comes with a C compiler. So learn basic Unix commands, either on Linux, Mac OS X, or cygwin on Windows.

You mentioned that your daughter did well in AP Statistics. She can learn R, which many statisticians use nowadays.