Ask HN: Help me help my cousin learn to program
My 18 year old cousin has just immigrated from Iran to Canada. He's quite smart: in Iran he was one of the finalists for the country's Physics Olympiad team, and was academically very strong. However he's unable to start college in Canada until next year, and wants to spend the time between now and then learning how to program.
Ideally I think he'd do that in a social setting so that he can also practice his English and make friends. I've already recommended things like Codecademy, Treehouse, and Udacity, but I think he really wants a more structured and social learning experience than those services can offer.
Unfortunately he needs to stay near his mother in Oakville, ON, and can't make it into Toronto on a daily basis. There really aren't any decent programming classes near Oakville or Mississauga. I've spent lots of time thinking about it, but I'm really not sure how to best help or mentor him.
So I'm reaching out to HN: does anyone have much experience with anything similar? If so, what have you learnt and what would you recommend?