[jgoerzen]

This is accurate to some degree. They would have been excited without xmonad, or with gdm instead of startx, because it was something new and involved a mouse. They were super-excited about that part.

Part of my point was that we don't have to spoon-feed things to children for them to be excited about. My boys don't yet have any concept of editor wars, or OS wars, or window manager / desktop wars, and are excited about whatever they have - especially when I juice it up a bit for their interests.

I am very intentional about spending time with them every day. And you are right that they are happy to spend time with me, doing whatever. Maybe playing hide and seek (a recent favorite is hide and seek outdoors with radios), simply swinging on the swing set, playing catch. We recently built a fire ring out of some surplus brick. They helped, and enjoy helping gather kindling and cook there.

But what I'm describing here is an utter delight that is beyond the everyday. The were super excited about this. It would probably take going camping or visiting a train museum to get them more excited ;-)

Incidentally, a used manual typewriter is another excellent and cheap way to give children a fun indoor activity that also engages their exploration. Think of all the moving parts in that!

[techx2501]

Don't hold back! They remind me a lot of me and my brother. At the ripe old age of 7 and 5, we started programming with MicroWorlds, and spent hours teaching ourselves from the manual so we could make simple 8-bit DOS games.

Once a month or so, we would also make a trip to the local thrift store and we would each get to pick out 1 electronic gadget (<$5 unless it was particularly compelling) to take apart. I hacked up everything from keyboards to handbag-sized cell phones. Exploring programming and electronics as a kid was a big part of my success as an adult. For a lot of people, technology is scary/magical, but it doesn't have to be that way.

[mtrimpe]

My first 'real' program was drawing a house in LOGO when I just turned four. I still remember my dad explaining me the concept of angles because I really wanted to draw a roof.

When I tried to rewrite that program 25 years later and downloaded a LOGO interpreter for OS-X; when it came to clearing the screen somewhere out of the vague recesses of my muscle memory the 'CLEAR' command just popped out.

It was still magical.

[mark_integerdsv]

Props for LOGO.

I learned that my ten year old was only learning consumption patterns for computers at school.

Web searching and a tiny bit of Office basically.

Something had to change and I've found that several kids are keen enough on LOGO even in our day and age to come to a Saturday morning LOGO lesson in the computer lab.

...even some of the grown ups have started bragging about shapes they built or clever uses of the REPEAT command.

It's just a magically simple analogue for all things code.

[lifeisstillgood]

I consider myself very lucky to work only ten minutes from our house. Its taken some time to get to that stage, and it has proven the whole work/life balance thing for me - finally. If possible I recommend it.

I had always assumed I would introduce computers when they started reading and writing but you are giving me some food for thought - thank you.

Occasionally I wonder if there should be an alternative syllabus - activities at home to complement the stages of a child's development and if such a thing exists - anyone know?

Good luck with the typewriter :-)

[ThomPete]

Now turn it around.

Have them use the computer most of the time and limit how much you are doing hide and seek.

Then watch the delight when you finally give in.