Teaching my kids Python - best resources?

[cnd]

I've been coding since 1982, learned python seriously a few years back (I'm a perl bigot) and my teenagers are about to start University to learn coding.

I've also been mentoring (python) some Uni kids this year - and, long-story-short, they're drowning.

To prepare my boys, I'd like to spend a few months getting them to learn Python *before* they learn it at Uni - the general idea being that they'll do well at Uni and their exams, when they're using that course as "revision" instead of "learning".

The Uni has some great online courses, ruined by using garbage IDE's and brainless auto-grader software in combination with disastrously badly specified projects they're supposed to work on - boggles my mind how so many kids paying so MUCH money to learn end up getting such a shitty deal.... but I digress...

Has anyone encountered some outstanding online courses for Python that they'd recommend for total n00bs? (beside hacking Minecraft years ago, and playing with "scratch" in primary school, they've done no coding since).

I'm also thinking that simultaneously teaching them JavaScript might be a worthwhile endeavor? - the general idea being that no-matter-what, they're going to need to know both those languages, and leaning to code with two-at-once should help them comprehend coding *concepts* in a more language-independent way, so when they encounter go/perl/c/ https://youtu.be/6avJHaC3C2U?t=2103 in future, they've got a better chance of quickly doing useful stuff and working it all out sensibly. Thoughts ?

Obviously, since BASIC/Pascal and 6502 assembly in 1982, I've grown up with this stuff - and I like to think I'm somewhat good at programming from all that experience. Exactly how to educate "new people" into the modern probably-overwhelming-to-them coding ecosystem is something I've got no clue about (and that's not even *Starting* on the main obstacle here... the word "teenager").

Has anyone done this recently with their own kids? Got any tips??

Any/all advice greatly appreciated!!

[perfringo]

Best resource is of course you yourself. You are most vested person and this is good opportunity to have quality time with your child/young adult. You may be surprised what you could find out about his/her personality. Highly recommended.

[cnd]

Thanks @perfringo! Like I mentioned, I was lucky enough these last few years to be exposed to a real University-level Python course, and the course itself was very nicely designed - it introduced things in a sensible order at a nice pace and appeared to have great coverage. My main shortcoming is that I already know programming. The very concept of imparting this "art" on total newbies is entirely alien to me, so my idea of a quest for outstanding tooling to assist is mostly to (hopefully) cover the stuff I know that I don't know (concept order introduction, cadence, neatly thought out examples, ...)

[Larz60+]

googling 'teaching python to kids'
brings up quite a few resources.
for example, you could use this book as a guide: https://www.amazon.com/Python-Kids-Playf...1593274076

My kids are in their 50's, I did however help my grandson learn, and I just picked a fun excercise (a simple adventure game), and we worked it out together. It's about 8 years later now, and he writes some pretty good code.

[OleBz]

As a father of two kids, I completely understand the struggle of trying to teach programming to someone who has no prior experience. I too have been in your shoes and I think I can offer some valuable advice.
First of all, I think it's great that you're considering teaching your kids Python before they start university. It will definitely give them an advantage and help them to understand the concepts better.
Regarding online courses, I would recommend Codecademy for both Python and JavaScript. They have a great beginner-friendly interface and provide a step-by-step guide for learning programming concepts
Additionally, I think it's a great idea to teach them both Python and JavaScript at the same time. As you mentioned, it will help them understand coding concepts in a language-independent way. This will make it easier for them to pick up other programming languages in the future.
Finally, my tip for teaching teenagers would be to make it fun and interactive. Try to participate in some projects with them, and believe me, this will be a great example and motivation for your kids. For example, when my daughter began to experience difficulties in medical college, I invited her to take part in one of the research studies and took on the part of the assignment. Even though I had no experience in this area, was able to make a valuable contribution to the final work. This allowed her to feel more confident in future assignments. Encourage them to work on projects that they are interested in and involve them in the coding process as much as possible. They are at an age where they are more likely to be motivated by things that they find interesting, so try to make programming a fun and engaging experience for them

buran write Feb-02-2023, 07:28 PM:
Spam link removed

[cnd]

Thanks everyone - so I thought I'd check back and let you all know how it went. (TLDR; huge success)

The main problem I ran into is: "Teenager". It's an evolutionary thing - sons split from their dads. Not much any dad can do about that if they find themselves here... he just wouldn't accept any help from me at all :-(

The secondary problem we both ran into is: "kids". That's a systemic failure problem. Long story short - my primary goal failed, my eldest son started Uni, drowned so hard and hated it so much he dropped out. The "systemic" failure part is that University is too different from school (a problem they should know and have solved - it's literally their job to be excellent educators) - no schoolkid is ever mature enough to survive in an environment where the institution tells them something "once", and if they didn't hear/notice/remember without a reminder, they suffer. All well and good if you're teaching kids to "grow up", but not when you're paying a huge sum of $$$ to teach them programming. The answer to this problem is "GAP YEAR". Never let your kid go from school to any higher learning without a year off - that's where they learn what it's like to not be a kid anymore (the sad part: they won't even know they learned this).

By luck however, at least one smidgeon of my efforts sank in: the "python" and the "javascript" seeds of the idea.

After dropping out, and getting a job in a bar, and getting sacked, that was enough for him to work out how to be a grown up, and that menial work sucks, and he found himself an online course to learn what I suggested (general assembly). Yes - annoyed the crap out of me that he's paying *someone else* the equivalent of $100/hr to teach him the same stuff I know, but that's a psychological advantage: he's slaved a lot of hours earning that money, which appears to be excellent motivation so far. He's loving the course, doing really well, and is excited about getting a job in this industry now! I've forced him to use perplexity.ai extensively as well, which (unbeknownst to him now) is a critical life skill he's going to need to know and use going forward too.

Cool how the universe tends to work itself out.

[Oliver123]

googling 'teaching python to kids'
brings up quite a few resources.
for example, you could use this book as a guide: https://www.amazon.com/Python-Kids-Playf...1593274076

My kids are in their 50's, I did however help my grandson learn, and I just picked a fun excercise (a simple adventure game), and we worked it out together. It's about 8 years later now, and he writes some pretty good code.

Wow, your story here is so wonderful! I'm inspired! I wish I had a grandfather who would have taught me programming as a child

[stevenarana]

Hello. Finding really good sources for learning is difficult. I used to finish courses that had high hopes, but they did not come true. Later I learned that every company has its own blog, where the developers themselves provide up-to-date information and some even provide training for newbies. It helped me a lot!

[Bronjer]

I think Python is a great language for kids to learn because it is easy to read, write, and understand. It also has many applications in the real world, such as web development, data science, and artificial intelligence. Some of the best resources I have found for teaching my kids Python are:

Free Beginners’ Python Course by Create & Learn: This is a live online course that teaches kids how to animate and draw with Python, and create their own story project. It is designed by experts from Google, Stanford, and MIT, and it is suitable for ages 10-15.
Python for Kids by Jason R. Briggs: This is a book that introduces Python to kids through fun and engaging projects, such as creating games, animations, and graphical user interfaces. It is suitable for ages 10 and up, and it covers Python .
Learn Python 2 by Codecademy: This is an online interactive tutorial that teaches kids the basics of Python , such as variables, data types, functions, loops, and conditionals. It is suitable for ages 13 and up, and it has quizzes and exercises to test their knowledge.
Python Games for Kids by CodeWizardsHQ: This is a blog post that lists some of the best Python games for kids to play and learn from, such as Snake, Tetris, Pong, and Flappy Bird. It also explains how to install and run them on their computer. It is suitable for ages 8 and up, and it requires some prior knowledge of Python.