[CLUE-Talk] Teaching Linux and/or programming to kids

[Dale K. Hawkins]

"Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier" <jzb at dissociatedpress.net> writes:

> I'm not sure a nine-year-old is quite ready for programming -- at least not

I think I was around eight and took to computer's immediately.  But
they just seemed less complex back then.  :-)

> Another thing that might be helpful is to limit his television. Most kids I've

Oh, yes.  The TV stays off most of the time.  I have a habit of
watching Jeopardy which I should probably stop doing.

> You might start him off with some games created with PyGame
> (http://www.pygame.org/) and then let slip that he could write his own games
> using PyGame... 

Good suggestion on the pygame thing.  I will check into it.

FWIW, I did install squeak and played with it for gosh 30 minutes or
so.  It seems like a pretty interesting tool and I think he'll like
it.


-Dale