jason@docpc.com.au wrote:
I would like to start teaching my children programming. They have access to an iMac, I am thinking that now they old enough to learn a language. I've looked at the standard Mac programming. But it seems to complex to start them off on. Any suggestions?
By the way the children's ages are 9 (boy) and 13 (girl). They are home schooled it would be great to be able to add another subject under their belt.
My knee-jerk language choice for a pedagogical[*] first language is Scheme for the top-down mathematics approach, and a nice clean assembly language (or C, in a pinch) for a bottom-up electrical engineering approach. In the former case, SICP and the associated video lectures are available gratis online. HOWEVER, I think both of those will assume a little more background than is taught by first form these days -- the first SICP lecture covers symbolic algebra, which will be difficult for those not already familiar with differential equations. Last time I looked differential equations had been pushed all the way back to matric :-/ * that is to say, people who want to learn, as opposed to "I want to program so I can make a really cool video game and/or make lots of money"