Ask HN: How do I give my son a head start?

If you'd like to give him a head start, give him room to decide what he'd like to do.

Don't limit his abilities, or options.

Perhaps he will not be interested in IT? He could be the man to cure Cancer.

> He's 6 months old currently so I have plenty of time!

You do indeed. Don't forget that. You have at least 8 years left before your kid should start doing this kind of thing. Just let him use a computer in a completely natural way, don't force anything on him. Programming is decidedly different from, say, playing the violin!

Also, less importantly, skip the shitty languages phase. It's not necessary to go through Pascal or BASIC before you can get to the good stuff: Python will do from the very beginning.

I've always thought something like turtle graphics (e.g. http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/webturtle/) is a neat way to teach kids programming/algorithm basics.

It's simple enough to understand the basics, yet powerful enough to be engaging enough to keep a child's interest, providing them a direct visual output to their 'code'.

I would stay away from the higher level stuff like Visual Basic; there is so much magic going on under the hood that it becomes difficult to really internalize the basic concepts of programming.

We learn what we love. Best way to get him to learn computers is to get him to love computers. You'll be setting him up for a life of social awkwardness and little success in the dating game, but you'll be doing the right thing for him. :)

I would start him on games and other "fun" stuff. Teach him to make his own games via BASIC or some equivalent thereof. If it's fun, he'll want to do it on his own. If you're just shoving it at him and it's not fun, he'll resent it and may even rebel against it.

Read to him when he is young, with him when older. It is the most stupidly effective academic intervention I'm aware of.

I would definitely teach 3yr & 1yr a lot of Mathematics & Finance. Flashcard and iPhone apps definitely helped.

IT skills become more of a necessity once they hit school. I see Programming as a form of art, unless you are interested in it. It's not going to be of any interest to them, like it is to me.

I'd be careful in this line of thinking, if I were you. Projecting wishes and expectations onto one's children is common, and counter-productive.

I was very excited when my daughter, around the age of 10, showed interest in programming. I showed her Scratch (from MIT), but I think my enthusiasm scared her off-- and she dropped it quickly. I regret that I didn't play it a bit cooler.

Baby Sign Language can jumpstart learning and communication.

The best videos (IMHO) are from "My Smart Hands" at http://mysmarthands.com/

The founder has free videos on YouTube, an iPhone app, and a new Android app (which I use).

1. Restrict TV consumption - help him become selective and not a slave to that time waster.

2. Play music - it probably does not matter what type.

3. Think very hard about schooling.

I owned a kids toy/developmental products company, be careful not to over stimulate your child. Over stimulation is just as bad as neglecting your child. This is the time to introduce your child to multiple languages, just have them playing in the background. Remember children are just large neural networks that work by recognizing patterns.

Don't focus on the subject or topic as much as the problem solving process. Children learn through pattern recognition until they have mastered language which leads to thought.

Remember children have short attention spans so only have them work on a subject/topic for a brief period or the children will develop a negative connotation with the subject.

A few people have mentioned mobile applications they are awesome. I developed a few apps that have been strongly adopted by organizations that work with developmentally challenged children. The simplicity and interactivity really makes a difference.

Kids can start programming a lot earlier if their introductory experience really minimizes frustration and time to gratification. Python is probably a good starting language for teenagers, but for pre-teens, who are much less cognitively mature, you'll have a lot more luck sooner if you introduce them to an IDE with great code completion and the power to make a GUI. Obvious candidates are Visual C# and Visual Basic, but I would strongly consider Adobe Flash as well. Children love making animations with Flash, and Flash's scripting language, ActionScript, has all of the features of a full-fledged programming language.

You can start even younger with HTML. HTML isn't programming, but it's relevant training for a developing brain. Balancing brackets, thinking logically, paying attention to detail, and the "write, run, debug" routine are all present when writing HTML.

My path to programming started when I discovered a copy of FrontPage Express (an old WYSIWYG HTML editor) installed on my computer. I quickly went from FrontPage, to HTML, to Flash/ActionScript, to Visual Basic, to C++. Obviously, that isn't the logical way for a teenager or an adult to learn programming, but for a child, it was incredibly natural.

Here is a good approach: Answer every question he asks. Help him find his interest. And as Patrick says, read to him now. (Just not Knuth).

I'd suggest giving them your old iPhone/iPod touch/Android device. My son has been playing with those since he was 1 1/2, and now (2 1/2) he is an expert at the interface. It's quite a testament to the UI to see how well a 2 year old can move around an iPhone. Then, he'll be able to "interface" with computers so much easier. They won't be this foreign thing, they'll be what shows them music videos.

From there, you have plenty of time. I know my dad started me out with BASIC when I was ~5: 10 PRINT "HI DADDY" 20 GOTO 10

After that, I didn't touch code until I was 13. So ultimately, my advice would be to not push them. If he wants to learn, he'll learn.

Just make sure they are familiar with technology, and you'll all be fine. Aside from that... read to him. Now. They pick it up quickly if you keep doing it consistently.

But really, don't worry about it and let him be a kid. The inner geek will come.

This book, "Hello World: Computer Programming for kids and adults" http://www.manning.com/sande/ might be a good place to start once your child is older. It's written by a father and son and documents his son's foray into programming using Python. I believe his son was 10 at the time.

Personally, my parents got me an Intellivision at the age of 6 and I played it every day. By around 4th grade, I wanted to start writing my own games so they got me a Commodore 64 and a couple of books with game listings in Basic and I started having more fun writing games than playing them.

Reading and Flash Cards. A lot of teachers hate flash cards, but the confidence to do the simple math allows for learning the hard stuff. Never underestimate the value of a good foundation. Learning how to actually use a dictionary might not be a bad idea.

[edit] when the kids old enough: legos - lots and lots of legos

Another random thought, though probably for slightly older kids: getting into programming through game modding. Starcraft 2 editor, WC3 editor, XML editing/modding, eventually Python editing, etc.

The bait is the chance to tweak and modify your games to make them more fun and personal for you. Could be a fun and pain-free segue into programming proper.

I would just forget about computers and programming completely and focus on the building blocks by a playful approach to solving day-to-day problems with logic and reasoning. Like how do we decide which things belong together? You can also play progressively more complicated iteration games like for-each-time-this-happens-let's-do-this-this-and-this! Or make complicated rube goldberg devices out of household objects and then debug why they don't work.

Computers would be just a distraction from the real work of building a foundation in cognitive skills.

The number one thing to do as he grows: allow his curiosity to flourish, even if it means letting him hurt himself a bit. Some learn better through words. Some learn better through visuals. This is mostly rote memory stuff, and it's crap. Everyone learns better through experience, and experience builds both memory and extrapolation. He might only be six months old, but he's already got a keen brain for gathering data and deducing outcomes. It's intrinsic to human nature, and it's commonplace to stifle it with too many boundaries. Don't. I'm not saying you should throw caution to the wind, but don't be as protective as the societal norm says you should be.

Allowed to be curious, he'll get critical thinking skills, passion for exploring the unknown and street smarts out of the deal. He'll immediately be better at anything he sets his mind on than those who have been forced into learning only through written and verbal means.

1. Act rationally. Let him see you making rational decisions, and searching for explanations.

2. Make him talk for himself. Encourage him to meet and talk to as many different people as possible. This starts early, when he wants to hide behind your legs, and it's probably the most valuable skill he can have.

First and foremost I want to commend you for caring enough as a parent to be thinking about this, but I think you're asking the wrong question. While not a parent myself I believe I can speak from my experience of once being a child.

It is my humble opinion that children should be slowly, slowly introduced to technology. The first example that comes to mind is my own introduction to a pocket calculator in the late 1980's. I was given one before I had been exposed to the intermediate concepts of mathematics and looking back it hurt much more than it helped as it immediately became a crutch. I became more interested in getting the problem done than learning from the experience.

A slow and methodical approach to learning is what works best for me, and may not be optimal for everyone. Laying the right foundation is pretty much the only way to excel, and given the perverse incentives that abound in (America's) public schools you need to pretty much accept that it's up to you to make this happen for your child. As someone who didn't have it I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a parent that is intensely interested in helping you build from simple concepts to the advanced, learn how to learn, and how to think critically about everything you encounter. Having someone there to help you cope with the anxiety of being a novice (at life and learning) is worth more than I can express. Making sure your child understands the core of a concept before he or she has access to tools that shortcut and accelerate its use is paramount.

Also, don't be disappointed if they want to write, sculpt, draw, or paint all day. We need artists too.

Good luck.

I read through almost all the comments and no one mentioned spoken/written non-computer languages.

I would say introduce him to at least one foreign language like spanish, french, german, portuguese, japanese, or chinese. I learned spanish as I learned english, by age 3 I was fluent in both. I had the advantage of having a spanish teacher for a mother, but it gave me the building blocks for understanding the rules and concepts of other languages (on 4 so far, working on 5th). These rules, grammatical, syntactical, etc. can help with picking up things like computer programming later. I mean they are called languages for a reason.

I think that giving your son excellent communication skills will give him a huge leg up on all his peers. Make sure to include reading in both english and another language too if possible.

Get him legos, things he can build with his hands, internalize the process of building, designing, visualizing. Do lots of projects with him. Show him how stuff works. Give him musical instruments to play with and give him lessons.

Honestly programming isn't that hard. If he finds it interesting he can start teaching himself at any age, so I wouldn't focus on that. All that said, IANAD. congrats on being a dad!

Time. That's it, nothing more - just spend time with him. Reading, playing and doing lots fun things.

I have two kids and had massively complicated plans on how to 'program' them (and I mean that with nothing but respect for what you're trying to do) but you can over-think this. By all means encourage, support and mentor them but try not to project your ideal image of what they should be too soon.

All the little dude needs is your attention and time - things will work out great. Good luck!

This might sound totally narcissistic but here's how I learned programming: Taught to play Chess at an early age; Taught another language (Russian, even though I never finished) at an early age (note that I didn't really like learning Russian, but it helped regardless); Given Legos and Lincoln Logs. Basically, any toy that uses building blocks encourages the kind of thinking used in programming; Read to often (but not about programming); Taught BASIC (the concept of "goto" goes a long way in realizing what is possible.); Got into creating game mods (as previous user recommended)

My parents actually sort of discouraged me from liking programming. If I would have, say, been really interested in chemistry and experimented with chemicals, they would have been less worried than when I would work on the computer for long periods of time.

It's also worthy to note that your son may not be interested in becoming a programmer, so don't try to consciously influence him. Surround him with the tools he needs. He'll find a way from there.