Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Domains

Domain: briggs.net.nz

Stories and comments across the archive that link to briggs.net.nz.

Comments · 12

  1. Snake Wrangling (i.e., Python) by Monkey-Man2000 · · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: Best Book Or Game To Introduce Kids To Programming?

    I have no first-hand experience with this book, but it looks good, and Python is a good option for anybody IMO.

  2. Re:Python by Monkey-Man2000 · · Score: 2 · on Ask Slashdot: Best Book For 11-Year-Old Who Wants To Teach Himself To Program?

    Another vote for Python and another free book to add to the rest of the comments...

  3. Python for kids by kakapo · · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: Best Book For 11-Year-Old Who Wants To Teach Himself To Program?

    Snake Wrangling For Kids http://www.briggs.net.nz/snake-wrangling-for-kids.html

    Free, python based, and downloadable. Worked for my kid.

  4. If using Python... by CJSpil · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Ask Slashdot: Best Book For 11-Year-Old Who Wants To Teach Himself To Program?

    You might want to check out the book Snake Wrangling for Kids

  5. Get them involved! by matt-fu · · Score: 3, Interesting · on How Do You Explain Software Development To 2nd Graders?
    Whatever you do, print out some copies of "Snake Wrangling for Kids" to hand out while you're there. It was written for kids who are eight years or older, but chances are there are at least a couple of kids in there who would get it if they looked it over. I gave a copy to my daughter when she was seven and she thought it was pretty fun. Even if nobody has access to some kind of Python install, it may plant seeds for later.

    http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/writing/snake-wrangling-for-kids/

  6. Re:backups are important. by the_womble · · Score: 1 · on What 'IT' Stuff Should We Teach Ninth-Graders?

    You are going to teach them all that with no hands on work? They will get bored to death and be unable to related it to reality.

    I would go with teaching Python, and suggest incorporating something like Snake Wrangling for Kids: it is CC licensed (code is GPL) so you could adapt stuff from it.

  7. Re:Python by Phred+T.+Magnificent · · Score: 1 · on How To Teach a 12-Year-Old To Program?

    Python isn't a favorite language of mine, and I'd much rather start with Ruby or even Perl. But. Take a look at Snake Wrangling for Kids, and Python may well turn out to be your best starting point.

  8. Re:Python by While1Smile · · Score: 1 · on How To Teach a 12-Year-Old To Program?

    Hello All, I fully agree about Python as "first" programming language for a primer: with this aim if you like browse here “Snake Wrangling for Kids” is a printable electronic book, for children 8 years and older, who would like to learn computer programming. It covers the very basics of programming, and uses the Python 3 programming language to teach the concepts. http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/writing/snake-wrangling-for-kids/ Happy New Year to Everyone:-)

  9. Re:Python by geminidomino · · Score: 1 · on How To Teach a 12-Year-Old To Program?

    My 11 year old nephew is the same way. He called me up last week asking if I could "show [him] how to make a Guitar Hero game". In typical geek fashion, I went into a long, dry explanation about the reasons you can't just dive into those things, blah blah blah. I got the impression I was disheartening the kid tho, so I sent him a link to a Python book for kids and didn't tell him I'd gotten him the UCreate games thing for Xmas (I was on the phone when he opened it. I simulatenously won best present of the year and best uncle of the year. ;) )

    If he gets frustrated because of not being able to do the blockbuster 50-million-dollar type games, then it's probably better for him to not get into it.

  10. Re:Python by mrtwice99 · · Score: 1 · on How To Teach a 12-Year-Old To Program?

    +10 for python. Here is a great python tutorial for kids his age: http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/writing/snake-wrangling-for-kids/

  11. Snake Wrangling for Kids by caseih · · Score: 4, Informative · on Best Introduction To Programming For Bright 11-14-Year-Olds?

    I know several young people who've got hooked on programming because of this free book: http://www.briggs.net.nz/log/writing/snake-wrangling-for-kids/

    There are versions of the book for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Although the book targets kids as young as 8, it would still be able to speak to an 11 or 12 year old I think.

  12. So what does that mean for recent newcomers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Python 3.0 Released

    Disclaimer: dumb guy here.

    I used to program a lot for fun, spending countless hours of my childhood in front of our *gasp* Apple //e. But lost that spark, the closest I ever came to programming for years was hand-coding basic HTML pages.

    Having been largely on the end-user side computing for a long time I've been trying to get back into programming. After many failed attempts (got lots of books on the shelf I bought then never read past page 7,) I stumbled upon Snake Wrangling for Kids Admittedly it's rather elementary, but I've been enjoying it.

    Now I read in the summary, "intentionally backwards-incompatible"? What exactly does that mean? What I learned was for naught? I imagine (hope) little that affects me since my instruction has been fairly basic, but it still put some worry in my mind.