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Comment by apl | Hacker News Reader

> He's 6 months old currently so I have plenty of time!

You do indeed. Don't forget that. You have at least 8 years left before your kid should start doing this kind of thing. Just let him use a computer in a completely natural way, don't force anything on him. Programming is decidedly different from, say, playing the violin!

Also, less importantly, skip the shitty languages phase. It's not necessary to go through Pascal or BASIC before you can get to the good stuff: Python will do from the very beginning.

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> don't force anything on him.

This is absolutely true. One of the risks that you take when you have a child is that he'll turn out totally different than you. My father was a farmer, and so we're from basically two different worlds. He could never understand why I wanted to be on the computer on the time, I couldn't understand why he wanted to be outside all the time. But since neither of us tried to force each other on the issue, we got along just fine.

> It's not necessary to go through Pascal or BASIC before you can get to the good stuff:

http://hackety-hack.com/

</blatant-self-promotion>

Certainly, Ruby is a fine first option. I'd recommend any Lisp derivative, or Javascript also.

I see no reason to learn Pascal, or BASIC, nor do I see its effectiveness.

Absolutely. I wrote a post about "Why Ruby?" a little while ago, but almost all of the arguments apply equally well to Python.

> > don't force anything on him. ... Just let him use a computer in a completely natural way.

> This is absolutely true.

I disagree, sort of. I have a 5 yo and an 8 yo. If you let kids use a computer without guidance, they will learn how to use a computer from their friends at school. And what they learn is to fire up a browser (chrome if you've got it, otherwise Firefox) type "<some word> games" into Google and play thousands of really mind-numbing flash games. Go ahead. Try it.

We're talking about two different things. I'm trying to say "Don't force Jimmy to program if he wants to be a football player" and you're saying "Help Jimmy to learn about what he's doing."

I'm not an expert on children, by any means, but I'd agree with both you and myself.

Also, I don't think there's anything wrong with playing flash games.

++ on Python. There is also a nice Python-for-kids textbook for ages 8+ http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/writing/snake-wrangling-for-kid...

And ++ on not letting your own enthusiasm scare him off. My mother started me on piano when I was 2 years and 10 months by playing herself and not letting me play (she already taught me to read music using flash cards). Depending on the kid, reverse psychology works pretty well.

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