A few days ago I wrote about Scratch, a nifty way to help my kids learn how to program.
I forgot a couple other things I found.
Stencyl. This looks neat. It I haven’t used it, but from what I read it looks like it follows the same sort of drag and drop “block” programming structure and logic that Scratch does. But it can be used to actually make iOS and Android products that you can actually ship and sell. So maybe after Scratch, this would be something to try. It would take the knowledge they had before, but now they have to actually make something polished and ship. A good “bridge” between the two worlds, so to speak.
There’s also GameSalad, which is made right here in Austin.
I still would want them to learn “real” languages (e.g. Objective-C, C++, Python, Ruby, Java, JavaScript, and maybe even new funky languages like Scala). Who knows. I think tho it needs to start with a desire to do it, and to really gain a love for it. If things like Scratch or Stencyl take off for them, then we’ll go there.
Who knows. 
Filed under: Computers, Education, Family, Kids, Programming, Teaching, Technology Tagged: Computers, Education, Family, Homeschool, Kids, Programming, teaching, Technology
