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My daughter (who just turned 4) seemed like she might like programming, so I started out having her "program" a stuffed walrus, by telling it whether to go forward, backward, left, or right to get to a piece of food. Her natural inclination was to point to where it should go, so I first taught her that the walrus doesn't understand pointing or the word "here", just the directions. Then we started "programming each other" by telling each other where to go, and I introduced doing multiple steps at once (like "step forward 5 times"). My goal wasn't literally to teach her to program, but just to introduce that way of thinking, which is pretty different from how we normally think in day-to-day life. She was excited about it, so I got her the Osmo programming kit for iPad. You program a little monster walking around, using physical, scratch-style code blocks. She's been excited about programming the monster every day, and is able to (sometimes) do some short programs of a couple blocks. If she learns a bit more, my plan is to show her how to program a simple lego robot with scratch, like one that spins a flag when it sees something pink. I love that idea because with 2 lines of code you can make something really happen in the world, plus she'll be able to come up with new ideas for the robot on her own, and learn about the constraints, sensors, and eventually more basic programming logic. |
I ask my kids to say a number, and then I do something to that number and tell them the answer.
Their job is to figure out the calculation I do.
Examples:
- I add a number: they say 3, I say 8. They say 11, I say 16
- I multiply a number.
- I multiply by something and add something else.
- etc
If you want to drive them nuts you can count the letters of the number, i.e. four = f o u r = 4, five = f i v e = also 4, ten = t e n = 3 etc :-D
(I might have gotten the idea from HN, but the above is how I taught it.)