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Ask HN: How to teach a 4 year old to code?

5 points by kamphey ↗ HN
Have you had any experience teaching a 4 year old how to code? I'm thinking about not just typing but the mindset of automation and programming. My son is in a weekly class called Kiddie Coders and they are learning directions and how to put arrows together on a sheet of paper to get someone through a series of squares.

I was thinking of putting together activities at home so he can see how to tell instructions to someone who is blind, or follow instructions like a recipe (the favorite analogy to coding seems to be cooking)

8 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 35.5 ms ] thread
bediger4000
There's a few episodes of the PBS show Cyber Chase you might want to watch with your kid.

There's a toy called Turing Tumble that might be good too.

bombcar
I’d fire up Logo. The little drawing turtle.
calgoo
My 5 year old is playing Minecraft and watching YouTube videos. He has now started asking about the automations, switches etc. so I'm teaching him the basics of coding, but in visual minecraft.when i asked about if and else the other day and referenced the switches he understood instantly what meant.
sargstuff
Perhaps something along lines of setting up / planning robot/activity path? aka (noted in other postings) scratch junior[0]; mblock botly dash[1]; code & go

?? program robot to fetch/push food items to bowl.

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[0] : https://www.scratchjr.org/

[1] : https://blockly.games/puzzle

davidajackson
Make it a game like the carol the robot class at stanford.
hulitu
> Ask HN: How to teach a 4 year old to code?

Lock him in a room. Put him in front of a Windows 11 computer. A frien told me that it's "accessible". /s