Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dndn1 1257 days ago
For 8yo, maybe you can consider bringing her through Hedy:

https://hedy.org/

It's gradual (starts easy but limited, then with progress through levels gets more precise and powerful), and I read that it gets to full blown Python programming.

Theres an excellent talk on the approach by the author:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fmF7HpU_-9k

Edit: +Hedy is designed with kids in mind, as opposed to adults, which I believe future coder and others are more targeted to.

1 comments

Hedy looks really good, thanks for the tip!

Yes, Future Coder is clearly aimed at adults or older teenagers, and looks really good for them. That was mostly the point of my question about user created tutorials. Using the current tutorial as a basis, but simplifying the language and some of the conceptual stuff would make something that could work for younger kids.

> simplifying the language and some of the conceptual stuff

This might work to an extent, but I think it makes more sense to choose a resource that's actually targeted at kids so that it's holistically and fundamentally designed to be the best thing possible for kids. That means features like simplifying the language itself (like Hedy or Scratch) or a game like https://codecombat.com/ to make it fun.

I'm thinking of going through it with my kids, and then I can explain what they don't understand.