[malicebird]

Daugthers 13 and 7. In our house, we try to relate what pops up in our daily lives and just chat about the related technology or math behind it. Example, ordering pizza online. How does the site know it's us? How the page walks us through describing what we want. Payment, making it, delivery. Old arcade games work too. The animation behind pac-man moving or mario running. When they seem interested, go to scratch and do something together and let them do the driving. Make something simple with quick results then talk about ways to improve it. Sometimes they want to add more, others they don't. Mad libs are fun for us. My oldest coded a simple one in python. Lots of laughter that day. Kids can be initially good at so much when they are interested and focus, but I have remind myself just because they put it down for a little while doesn't mean they won't pick it back up someday. A parental gentle push vs a child's free choice is a balance I have to work at.