Teach a Kid to Program / Wired How To's

Teach a Kid to Program / Wired How To's

Tools

Logo Logo is a programing language for kids. There is a free version for the PC, MSWlogo, which also has lots of online tutorials. There is also a free version for the Mac, ACSLogo.

I was able to teach children as young as 2nd grade the basics of Logo, including understanding programs that used recursion(!). I put my Logo lessons on the web.

Lego Mindstorms Programmable lego sets that offer a fairly simple programming interface. There is also a free online Lego simbot which overlaps with Logo.

Flowol Control applications offer a good visual way to learn programming concepts. Flowol is a popular one used with students.

Game Maker Game maker is excellent and free and allows for both drag and drop and coding.

Scratch Scratch is a superb new visual programming environment that is gathering a lot of attention amongst educators. It can be used to create games, tell stories, respond to variables and so on.

Alice For the final stage I would recommend alice for OOP but without the headache!

Pipes

One thing I'm going to try with my 10 year old is Yahoo Pipes

KPL

Code for Fun says I would highly recommend KPL(Kids Programming Language) ...It's like BASIC on steriod..KPL is based on C#.

Hackety Hack

why, the luck stiff, put together an environment specifically designed to get kids interested in programming. It's based on ruby and specializes in creating applications that would interest kids, such as a blog or a music player. This is why he did, here is how you can get it, and here is more info about it.

Phrogram

My husband started my then seven year-old with http://phrogram.com/ She was able to do "Hello World" and line graphics with his help, using the free version. They include a nice tutorial and it looks like a real programming environment, so moving up, when they're ready, won't be too hard.

Toontalk

I played this several years ago. In the game-like program, everything looks like it's made out of legos, and you train robots to do things by going inside their thought bubbles and doing the types of things that you want them to do. Completely non-textual, but it is a form of programming. Website here: http://www.toontalk.com/

I'm a secondary teacher rather than primary so am not an expert at teaching 5 year olds but I can say what I do in secondary:

I would say the first stop should be MSWlogo which is free - http://www.softronix.com/logo.html - with lots of online tutorials Control applications offer a good visual way to learn programming concepts. Flowol is a popular one I use with my students - http://www.flowol.com/ Another control application is a free online lego simbot which has overlaps with Logo - http://mindstorms.lego.com/simbot/ Scratch would extend what has been learned form the above applications nicely - http://scratch.mit.edu/ - and free courses are available on the web - http://www.meridianmoodle.com/course/view.php?id=35 Game maker is excellent and free and allows for both drag and drop and coding - http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker For the final stage I would recommend alice - http://www.alice.org/

Don't forget Squeak. I've heard pretty good things about it, and you can do real things with it. It is the language underneath Scratch.

<http://www.squeak.org>