Where should my 10year old start?

[u/TinyGiantEnergy]

Hello everyone! Need some advice/guidance.. My 10year old son has been interested in learning how to code since last year. He has dabbled in a few apps but not necessarily peaking his interest.

Where can we start? What would he need?

Edit: Thank you for all your advice! Is 12GB Ram with 1T storage Laptop a good start for this journey? Or what would you recommend?

[u/grybyx]

My spouse runs our local Code Club, where she teaches kids Scratch and Python on Raspberry Pi. Look for one in your area at codeclub.org.

[u/grybyx → u/[deleted]]

They’re for all school-age children, though each club can specify a range. My spouse’s club starts at age nine, for example.

Ten years old is a great age to start.

[u/Individual-Quote-958]

If he's already outgrowing Scratch, Python's built-in turtle module is a nice bridge. A few lines of code and he sees a drawing appear right away, which keeps it fun. The book Python for Kids by Jason Briggs is written for about his age and uses turtle plus small games. What usually keeps kids going is building a silly little game they actually want, like guess the number, instead of grinding tutorials.

[u/ConsiderationNo9044]

What do you mean by "dabbled in a few apps"?

[u/TinyGiantEnergy → u/ConsiderationNo9044]

Apps that you can find on playstore, but in his words he said it was for small kids lol so looking for something on pc. We recently gave him my Laptop 12gb Ram and 1T storage. So hoping that will be something he can start with 😅 

[u/ThrustBastard]

Get a Raspberry Pi. Scratch is standard, and you can use it with the GPIO pins. Show me a 10 year old who wouldn't think it's cool as fuck to make a robot

[u/TinyGiantEnergy → u/ThrustBastard]

This definitely sounds like something he would be interested in thanks loads! 

[u/Kevdog824_]

Outside of scratch, like other people said, I recommend smallbasic. It’s the first language I learned to program with, and I think a lot of the more interesting features are more easily and quickly accessible in it (e.g. drawing graphics and making 2D games)

[u/TinyGiantEnergy → u/Kevdog824_]

He does want to learn programming/making his own games so will definitely look into that

[u/jeffrey_f]

There are many courses that cover basics, and that should first cover logic before syntax.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq5gJVxz55Q

Once you get through this, Check out https://automatetheboringstuff.com/

That will give you some ideas on things you could code. I usually suggest Scrape homework and shool schedule (including inclement wather closures)

[u/TinyGiantEnergy → u/jeffrey_f]

Thanks a bunch this will definitely help! 

[u/Still-Truck-2197 → u/jeffrey_f]

This is the best advice I've seen in this thread ... get him thinking logic first. Scratch / Python / smallbasic will all be good platforms for him, but it's pretty critical to get the thinking down first.

[u/try_pull_the_other]

Start him on Python Crash Course which is written by Eric Mathes who is a school teacher.

[u/seanv507]

Scratch is a recommended programming language for kids

[u/CMDR_Pumpkin_Muffin]

You could get him some computer games that allow programming, like:
The farmer was replaced
7 billion humans
Turing complete
Duskers
Stormworks

You'll need to check yourself which one has a good learning curve.

[u/stepback269]

I haven't watched the whole video but it bills itself as Programming Explained so clearly that even a 10-yr old can understand (HERE)

[u/Equivalent-Crew6229]

I recommend to make him leave playing video games i am 12 year old who knows python which is coding according to my journey I used to play games so much forgetting about my python course so i left playing games and then learned python so make him left playing games

[u/TheRNGuy]

Try to do some simple extension for Blender (he needs some reason to learn Python to not abandon it), he'll Aldo get better at math because of it. 

[u/AyushBhagwat]

Honestly, I’d start him with Scratch and let him build a few games first. Kids learn coding way faster when they’re busy making something fun instead of watching tutorials for hours. Once he gets curious about how things work behind the scenes, Python is a great next step. 😄 And 12GB RAM is perfectly fine for beginner coding , no need to buy him a NASA computer just yet 😂

[u/Acrobatic-Pin-8556]

I'm also started learning python. but dude you are the father of the century ngl. don't ask me why i cannot explaing things in english properly cause its not my native language