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Comment by dragonbonheur | Hacker News Reader

Teach them BASIC first, not the HTML+CSS+Javascript mess. http://www.freebasic.net/get Then let them loose on this site: http://www.petesqbsite.com/

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Have you heard anything about ALICE or Phrogram? seems like they were made for kids

Kids have been learning BASIC by themselves since the late 70's. When someone understands BASIC he/she can move on easily to other languages and concepts like OOP and pointers, which FreeBASIC has. If you choose Scratch or Alice and move too far from text-based languages there's a risk that they may not be able to convert their programs to other languages and become limited by the "features" of ALICE and Scratch. If you teach them BASIC, you'll eventually find a compiler even for Android or iOS.

Phrogram seems to be a dialect of BASIC too. But really try FreeBASIC first, unlike Phrogram it's free.

Here's a BASIC for Android: http://laughton.com/basic/ More BASIC compilers and interpreters: http://basic.mindteq.com

What what you say is a good age to try and introduce a child to programming?

Most people who started by themselves did so at 11 or 12, like Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates.

I've seen people claim to have started as early as 4 so really whenever both you and the kid feels ready

Well my daughter is 5, and she's above average, developmentally speaking.

The problem we keep running into is that my daughter sounds excited about learning something, but when it comes down to actually doing it, she loses interest fast. We haven't tried programming yet, so far we have been experimenting with other stuff because we plan on homeschooling her.

I'm hoping that isn't a trait she inherited from me. I was a terrible student from about 3rd grade until I "finished" high school. Sometime in my early 20s, I suddenly became interested in electronics, math, and programming. Now that I'm a 30 year old, 3rd year college student, I wish I hadn't wasted so many years.

I agree, it's a tough balance. I'm a dad and a technical geek myself so I completely understand. Just remember, while we may wish our kids to be interested, they might just have plans of their own. Best we can do is try to introduce them to these things, show how cool it can be, and hope they are willing to learn. I don't believe in forceful learning (not suggesting that's what you are doing).

I know even from personal experience most people don't retain majority of things they've learned growing up or in college unless its something they care about or have done continuously. So maybe your daughter might be ready now, maybe not quite yet. Maybe she'll never be interested. Do the best you can but don't take your ideals upon her if she isn't interested. Believe me, more than anything I hope my kids will have a love for these things too, but its something they must discover to be interesting to them.

On that note, perhaps you could try it from a few different angles and see how it works. Five is still a pretty young age and the average is probably usually a few years older so don't lose hope if she isn't interested just yet

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