Ask HN: Offline Learning Resources for Children | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Offline Learning Resources for Children

8 pointsprawn12 comments

I have an old 2007 iMac that I planned to set up in my 9yo son's room, but keep it offline. Are there any offline learning resources (general knowledge, programming, etc - especially interactive) that might be appropriate?

I assume there are offline versions of Wikipedia, but anything with content filtered? There are some serial killer pages on there that are pretty NSFL even for adults.

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I know you said iMac, but if you are OK installing Linux on it, I think Endless OS* is what you're looking for:

* https://endlessos.com/home/

This is amazing, thank you

Doesn't look like it supports a Mac, but that appears to be a great option for others. My most recent Windows-based machines are unfortunately much older and tragic.

BBC Bitesize

An educational resource for UK school kids. There's a vast amount of content for all ages. Here's an example of explaining programming constructs:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zh66pbk/revision/2

You would need to crawl the site in order to download the content for offline use. I suspect the interactive quizzes won't work in offline mode. Also, modern websites saved for offline use are unlikely to display correctly in a 2007 Web browser.

As an aside: your question is very interesting because no-one makes offline content anymore. Learning resources on CD like Encarta (CD encyclopedia) no longer exist. However, you can probably find old educational CDs on eBay e.g. from The Learning Company - titles are of variable quality.

You can install a Wikipedia locally. Not sure if a children's version exists

There is a project for offline knowledge resources called 'Internet-in-a-box' which includes an offline Wikipedia too (presumably unfiltered) :

Internet-in-a-Box brings the very best of the World’s Free Knowledge (Wikipedia, Khan Academy, OpenStreetMap, E-Books and many others) to those who are offline — e.g. anybody nearby with an old smartphone, tablet or laptop.

http://internet-in-a-box.org/

I came across this, but searching didn't unearth whether there was a cutdown kids version:

https://www.kiwix.org/

I have considered just scraping/grabbing all the countries, planets, stars and maybe notable pre-modern people, and leaving him to gradually work through those for a bit.

Thanks - I'll take a look.

Yes, I'd searched for a modern, offline equivalent of Encarta but couldn't find anything. When he was a toddler, I'd looked for simple games for the same computer and found virtually nothing for a Mac. Mac gaming used to be especially tragic and younger gaming options were even worse. Fast forward and we have five iPads and an Apple Arcade account.

Is a Raspberry Pi an alternative option? There is a possibility you might even be able to connect the Pi to the iMac via USB (can't guarantee this will work though).

I mention the Raspberry Pi because you can run current programming languages (like Python), make programs and much more.

There are offline learning resources like the MagPi magazine which are full of tutorials. Every issue of MagPi is available to download as a free PDF. It's an excellent learning resource for kids and adults:

https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/issues

Yeah, probably. I assume they're cheap enough. My issue is that I am always short of time and spend what spare time I do have with him playing Lego, Minecraft, Halo, etc. Can't really fit in a project getting yet another device up and running, troubleshooting inevitable issues, etc.

Found myself spending 1-2 hours yesterday looking for Mac games that would work on the 2007 iMac when I realised it was idiotic given the kids already had access to decent games on iPads, Apple TV, PS4, 360, original Xbox (Fuzion Frenzy!), Wii, mini classic Nintendo, etc.

Downloading a MagPi issue to take a look. Might spark something in him - he reads Minecraft books for ideas, so this might be a logical step up.

I would scour DRM-free ebooks (Humble Bundle has some good stuff occasionally; otherwise Internet Archive) and load them into Calibre.

If your child is very hands-on/project-oriented, set up an IDE/word processor/image manipulation program and let em make stuff.

I would love an easily managed, interactive/offline programming course, but not sure it exists without a bit of setup hassle. My fallback is just word processor and typing practice which isn't a waste, but image manipulation is a good idea.

I've just remembered I have an unused 2015 MacBook Pro so I might try him on that plus Unity and some downloaded game making tutorials.

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