How do you teach an 11-year-old to code?

December 14, 2018 7:38 AM

My 11-year-old is interested in learning to code, and I have no idea what to get him to help with that desire.

Snowflake details: There are so many coding for kids kits that I'm skeptical of them, and he's not a super physical, hands on kid -- so I'm not sure he needs the feedback of making a thing perform in the real world. I think he would be very happy making programs/games. He has done some "hour of code" stuff in school so he's not totally out of new to this. He's a strong reader, so if there's a book you'd suggest alongside or in addition to software, that would likely be great. Heck, is there a YouTube coding for kids channel? Open to anything, because I know nothing. Thank you!

posted by lieberschnitzel to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Before looking into any of resources below, I'd have him do some courses on codeacademy.com to see if the interest sticks before throwing too much money at it. Code academy is free and has great introductory tutorials (with integrated development environments) for a few different languages. I'd recommend Python to start as it is very human-readable and there are a lot of resources out there for it.

If he is interested in creating games, Invent Your Own Computer Games With Python is my go-to resource for budding coders. It has a decent free online component, including the full text of the book (which may negate you wanting to actually buy it) as well as some tools for checking your code, example source, etc. Python is super popular so there are a lot of tutorials online and PyCharm IDE is pretty user friendly in my experience.

The other book I like for those aspiring to code games is Theory of Fun. If you opted not to get the former recommendation, this is more of a theory book that can be paired with any coding language.
posted by _DB_ at 7:51 AM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

Coding is my kid's jam but he's only 6 so he still relies on the block coding languages rather than using a "real" language, so that's what I know first-hand. Starting with a block language is a great introduction to the concepts he'll encounter in other languages though (sequencing, variables, loops, if/else), so maybe see if he is interested in Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/

There are a ton of "coding your own games in Scratch" books out there--your library may even have a couple. Scratch also pairs well with a Makey-Makey, which is a physical thing, but can be used to turn random objects into game controllers to play aforementioned Scratch games.

Python seems to be a popular first for-real language, and there's a lot of books out there aimed at kids. A lot of the Python tutorial sites are not free these days it seems, but Code Academy mentioned by _DB_ is a a good resource for learning the basics of syntax and what the language is all about.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:54 AM on December 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

Did he use Scratch at the after school program? If he's familiar with that, then you can buy workbooks that walk you though different projects. It's a good way to get familiar with how to create games and such. My 10-year-old has also done the online Coding with Kids classes, which they offer live and he really enjoyed. It was an ideal time for us, after school in the early evening, so didn't interfere with the million other things we had going. I think I have a referral code for them if you're interested.
posted by LKWorking at 8:11 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Is this set from Chibitronics too hands-on? It looks like tons of fun...
posted by Too-Ticky at 8:18 AM on December 14, 2018

Udacity has an Intro to Programming course that is free and gives you a decent Python background.
posted by soelo at 8:23 AM on December 14, 2018

Check out Pico-8. It's an emulator for an 8-bit game console that never existed. It comes with built-in editors for code, sprites, and music. Uses a dialect of Lua.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 10:52 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Don't worry too much -- lots of people learn to code without ever being formally taught, it's not like conservatory music. Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python is a great suggestion, and you could help with the setup and sit side-by-side through the first practice or two yourself. Games, music, algorithmic art, there's lots of fascinating stuff that doesn't require anything but trial-and-thought on a non-networked computer. If that's interesting but there's too much frustration, try scheduling one of the classes.

I would, alas, keep a parental eye on forum interactions.
posted by clew at 1:24 PM on December 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

Seconding the Circuit Playground Express or the micro:bit. Both have lots of curriculum and bonus silly things. Both can either be programmed with Blocks or MicroPython. They have touch sensors like the makey:makey does.

I have been exceptionally childish with my CPE, turning it into a mini chord guitar and regrettably, a remote-controlled farts n' laughs machine.
posted by scruss at 6:06 PM on December 14, 2018

Khan Academy has interactive programming tutorials that are very well done. Audio instructions are given while code is "typed" into a box, but you can pause the instructions and modify the code to explore on your own. You can see an example lesson here.
posted by vert canard at 12:40 AM on December 15, 2018

Code combat is a coding tutorial and RPG where you control a character by coding. There's paid and free versions and you can do online battling against other programmers.
posted by signal at 9:51 AM on December 15, 2018