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Computer Programming after Scratch


Heathermomster
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I'm teaching my son to program in Java currently. There are many great resources available from free to reasonably priced.

 

Computer Science like many of the sciences is best learned by interacting with it, hence the lab portion (programming). Python and Java are really popular programming languages to start with, though Java is more powerful. In the beginning simply learning logic flow and patterns are a great place to start. Seeing how the pieces fit together is very helpful. That is why programs like Scratch and Game Maker are taking off as educational tools. Game Maker's Apprentice is the first book I started my son with when he was 10. He finished the book and built all the games using the Game Maker tool.

 

Next we did this very practical tutorial series which I recommend your son trying. Its entitled Java for the Absolute Beginner:

 

After that we went on to this fantastic free educational tool called Greenfoot. This is a powerful tool for both teaching programming fundamentals and making some cool games. It's used by quite a few college and university CS departments in teaching programming. Java is used:

 

http://www.greenfoot.org/overview

http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/mik/category/joy-of-code/page/2/

 

There are too many beginning programming courses and additional tutorials available to list. But here are a few more:

 

http://www.artofprob...rse_id=cs:intro

http://www.khanacade...omputer-science

http://see.stanford....aa-866adcae1111

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Derek, what an incredible list!! Thanks... we're always looking for new ideas for DS.

 

After Scratch (which DS still uses for fun but isn't really learning more), we moved to Kid Coder Visual Basic:

 

http://www.homeschoolprogramming.com/kidcoder/kidcoder_vb_series.php

 

DH is working through that with him now. After that, he wants to do the game package from the same line, then we'll probably look for some Java resources.

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