Ask HN: What are the best computing resources for children? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are the best computing resources for children?

13 pointsadrian_mrd7 comments

What great resources (books, e-books, podcasts, apps, websites, MOOCs, etc) have you come across that help explain the world of computing to pre-teenage children (or even newbs or adults) who are trying to understand the core principles of computer science?

And what techniques do these resources use to communicate and teach some of the more difficult elements of computing eg recursion, polymorphism, computational thinking, logarithms, advanced networking, logic, discrete mathematics, electrical engineering, etc?

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Maybe something like Computer Science Unplugged? [1] We have two preschoolers, not pre-teenagers, though. But I am thinking of starting with something like this one day. It is compelling to think that maybe for the basics, a computer might not be needed at all.

1: https://csunplugged.org/en/

I think that KhanAcademy offers a lot of great material on the basics of computer science, maths, and many more topics. It is also entirely and has a great user experience. (https://www.khanacademy.org/computing)

If you are searching for more advanced computer science topics, FreeCodeCamp and the FreeCodeCamp news platform might be for you (FreeCodeCamp offers programming content while the news platform has articles on a wide variety of topics, including computer science, productivity, math, etc.). (https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/)

Both follow a project and exercises based learning approach that first shows you the basics of the concept and then sends you out to build something and solve problems using the newly discovered skill.

I went to an IT recycle depot and picked up a few years old desktop for my kids and we put Linux on it.

Now a few years later my kids have become quite savvy as they’ve learnt much about computers working with Linux and self upgrading their desktop.

Also there is an open source version of most desktop tools they might want Yo experiment with so they avoid lots of spyware risk that comes with mainly windows.

This is how I learned as a kid (I'm 23) and I have to say my discovery of GNU/Linux and Free and Libre Open Source Software has may have been the single most impactful event I can trace in my life.

Cool resources are great, but I think kids just want to have fun, which I as a kid did that by building websites, programming games and fiddling around with electronics. So buy a Lego mindstorms or build a circuit with transistors.

I have taught grades 1-5 programming with Scratch. I have a few free tutorials posted in my profile to get you started.

I am working on a complete course in programming for kids. In my experience it was not till kids reached 9 that they really could run with ideas on their own and make things. The one exception is if the parent is involved. In those cases kids as young as 4-5 could do something with the help of the parent.

I'm a fan of code.org and the Scratch programming language. Hands on, there are a few neat resources such as Dash and Dot. Another I've seen in a classroom was playosmo.com/en/

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