Is teaching my 8yr old son a functional language first a bad idea?

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21

Ooo yeah, we could help with that too, showing tutorials, helping with code, etc… :slight_smile:

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I started at 12, with basic, pure fun, now windows… only a TRS-80 green screen. Buy him a linux, without any windows manager. keep him away of ipads, iphones, etc… all the images are against the abstraction development, and completely focus on solving problems. HASKELL, the most elegant and pure functional. here https://github.com/pavelfatin/ninety-nine you will find very good problems to solve, but for an age of 12 or more…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-pavley/teach-a-kid-functional-pr_b_3666853.html
https://www.kidscodecs.com/haskell/

start with very simple problems, and always keep solving problems. keep teaching only the theory necessary to solve that specific problem.

anyway, if he is already addicted to smartphones or windows, start from gaming, as I suggest in this tips: https://github.com/henry-hz/learn-coding

23

Lots of interesting answers. I have to mention that of course he asked me about this and I’m in no way forcing him to do it. A lot of replies here assuming I’m forcing him to sit down and do something he’s not even casually interested in, that’s not what I’m about.

I started him on Scratch today and he enjoyed it a lot. He also grasped loops and conditionals pretty much immediately. I’m really happy for him! I’m going to work on some Scratch stuff with him (I left him to his own devices today), and maybe a few months down the line start with a “real” programming language.

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24

I don’t think anyone thinks you were forcing him Sergio :lol:

Re Scratch, nice! Though I couldn’t find any code examples on their site (I don’t have flash installed) - what’s their syntax like?

I’d have been really interested in knowing what he thought of the syntax of different languages.

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It is a block language, so the syntax is mainly a GUI ^^’

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26

there is also tynker, which is similar to scratch, they have quite a few free ‘levels’ https://www.tynker.com/hour-of-code/ - and also an app for tablets https://www.tynker.com/mobile/

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Thanks!