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[Jim Allman <jim AT ibang.com>]

On Mar 10, 2005, at 9:10 AM, Michael Best wrote:
> My son has been nagging me to help him write some programs.  I've 
> already
> gotten him started with some simple web page Javascript.  But I was
> wondering if anyone here has suggestions for teaching an 8-year-old 
> how to
> program (especially if he can make games).

Michael,

You might check out PyKarel, a Python implementation of Karel the 
Robot. This is similar to Logo; your commands drive a little robot 
through a visual world of mazes, walls, etc. Hm, apparently it's now 
called Guido van Robot:
        http://gvr.sourceforge.net/screen_shots/

Also, I wouldn't sweat the "dead language" problem--he'll have time to 
pick time a few more languages ;)  I'd recommend a dynamically typed, 
high-level scripting language (Python) to start with, since it's the 
quickest path from "what I want" to "what's happening in there." Unless 
your kid is hyper-focused, I'd try to keep the hurdles low in the 
beginning--no header files, arbitrary class/packaging requirements, 
etc.

And there are of course other languages designed just for teaching 
kids. There's an older one from MIT that looked really cool, but I 
can't recall the name... Dang.

  =jimA=

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jim Allman
Interrobang Digital Media
http://www.ibang.com/
(919) 649-5760