I agree, my 7 year old is into maths at the moment and he found it easier to just use PHP to do basic maths.

I sat down with him for about an hour and I printed a "cheat sheet" for the various arithmetic operators (just the basic ones) and he's now quite able to just whack a simple script together and execute it on the command line.

Having said that, he wasn't entering the situation completely blind. He's been using a PC with Linux (Ubuntu) since he was 3 years old. He's been playing Minecraft for 4 years (which is excellent for younger kids to learn mouse skills).

I also started him out on GCompris on a laptop. Then we both built a PC for him when he was 5. I got a load of cheap second parts during the early part of the pandemic and I let him do it himself (while observing and guiding).

I started him early because I started early too and I started him off on PHP because I remember it being relatively easy to learn when I was a kid because it isn't a particularly strict language which means a young mind doesn't have to perform a huge amount of translation in their own head, they can almost type exactly what they're thinking and run it.

The command line I introduced almost immediately. It was a way easier method of teaching him to launch apps without my help...I just set the terminal to load on startup and printed him another "cheatsheet" of basic stuff that he needed (no rm -rf * just yet).

If he's in an exploratory mood he will use the menus and UI but if he just wants to get straight into Minecraft or write a script he can just get stuck in!

I can see scratch becoming more interesting to him further down the line but for now, certain things are easy enough.

Typing is an interesting one though...I spent a fair bit of time working on his typing because his handwriting at school wasn't up to par (he's fine now, but his crap handwriting was holding his spelling back a bit). As soon as he became somewhat proficient at typing his spelling improved no end. Unfortunately though, his teacher won't let him do spelling tests on a laptop. Which I think in 2022 is the dumbest thing ever. They've only just started teaching typing and basic computer skills in his class (as of about 6 mo this ago). I had his teacher take me aside and ask me exactly what the hell I did to get him so far ahead. They measured his typing speed at 60wpm!

This all said though, I am an IT guy...so parents with little to no tech skills might not have the smooth ride I had, which is probably where tools like scratch come in...I think it's a tool for non-technical parents as well as kids.

Before scratch though, I'd highly recommend GCompris...but be warned, you need to do it short sessions (20 minutes or so) because kids get bored of it fast.

My youngest is 3 and he's getting second knowledge from my oldest right now as well as the same stuff I did with my oldest...so maybe he'll learn even quicker?? We'll have to wait and see.

user:	hammerheadtech
created:	July 17, 2022
karma:	3