Synopses & Reviews
"Computer programming is a powerful tool for children to 'learn learning,' that is, to learn the skills of thinking and problem-solving...Children who engage in programming transfer that kind of learning to other things."--Nicholas Negroponte, the man behind the One Laptop Per Child project that hopes to put a computer in the hands of every child on earth, January 2008
Your computer won't respond when you yell at it. Why not learn to talk to your computer in its own language? Whether you want to write games, start a business, or you're just curious, learning to program is a great place to start. Plus, programming is fun!
Hello World! provides a gentle but thorough introduction to the world of computer programming. It's written in language a 12-year-old can follow, but anyone who wants to learn how to program a computer can use it. Even adults. Written by Warren Sande and his son, Carter, and reviewed by professional educators, this book is kid-tested and parent-approved.
You don't need to know anything about programming to use the book. But you should know the basics of using a computer--e-mail, surfing the web, listening to music, and so forth. If you can start a program and save a file, you should have no trouble using this book.
Synopsis
Scratch is a graphical programming language from MIT's Media Lab that's designed especially for young people. Students control graphics, music, and more by snapping together blocks, much like LEGO bricks or pieces of a puzzle, dragging-and-dropping blocks to create programs. Scratch is used in many schools to teach kids the basics of programming in a novel and fun way, and the Scratch website alone showcases over 1,000,000 Scratch projects. The Book of Scratch is a full-color, illustrated guide to programming with Scratch that teaches kids how to make cool projects, like joke-telling sock puppets and a car racing game. Young people can use Scratch's intuitive, graphical interface to create or tweak interactive stories, games, animations, music, and art. Each chapter takes the reader through a game or other project that teaches a key programming concept, like variables, message passing, and loops. As kids work through projects like a side-scrolling octopus adventure and interactive versions of classic games like Rock, Paper, Scissors, they learn programming by doing.
Synopsis
This full-color, illustrated guide to programming with Scratch teaches kids how to make cool projects. Each chapter takes the reader through a game or other project that teaches a key programming concept, like variables, message passing, and loops.
Synopsis
"Computer Programming for Kids" gives kids--or anyone who wants to learn programming from a fresh perspective - a gentle but thorough introduction to the world of computer programming. This book uses the Python language, a free, open source language which is ideal as a teaching tool. Python was chosen because it is easy to learn, free, and compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. Python is also the base language for the "One Laptop per Child" program. This book covers all the basic concepts of computer programming, and applies them to fun, interesting topics like, computer graphics, game programming, and simulations. It is aimed at kids, but anyone who wants to learn how to program a computer can use it. You don't need to know anything about programming to use the book. Just a normal user-level familiarity with how to use a computer is enough to learn from this book. You can use the book to easily learn to interact with the computer on a programming level. This book can be used at home or in a classroom setting. There is nothing like it currently on the market.
About the Author
Howard Abram's first job was teaching Basic and Logo programming to kids. Now a professional programmer, he teaches programming at his local elementary school.
Matt Barringer taught himself how to program in elementary school, and still remembers how difficult it was. Barringer is a professional programmer.