Programming Lessons for Kids of Different Age

All kids are different.

The tempo and quality of child’s development depends on

• Genetic mental abilities: how fast neuron cells speed up, slow down and change their activity, and how long they can keep tension.
• How much time adults interact: speak and play with a kid.
• Type of food, illnesses and amount of stress child experiences.

The brain is being formed until one is 7. From 8 years old, you can expect a child to be serious enough, so he can be taught how to program.

With every year passing, a child gets better in such areas:

• Focus attention long enough to be able to learn something worthwhile.
• Gets interested in being involved in almost any activity.
• Wants to share his knowledge and opinion.
• Loves playing active games to improve his abilities and show others his proficiency in sports.
• Is fond of imagining who one wants to be.

In this article I would like to tell which kind of programming works the best for which age.

Kids of 8–9 years old

Kids of this age love participating in games. They easily take the events going around them as a fairy tale and imagine themselves as part of what’s going on. They love to play with robot as kittens with a ball.

It’s good to organise a costume story where the robot will be an actor, around which stuff goes on.

Successful ideas

1. Take any known to kids movie and create a play based on it. Here is what will be if to take the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
   All kids are in Hogwarts. The Houses have to compete over whose programming spells are better. In the end they all work together on a common programming project which is Quidditch Cup alike. The next lessons can be done in the format of the next Harry Potter series.
2. When you know the kids and they speak with you about the Pokemons all the time, it’s clear they are interested in the subject. Watch several such movies, and invent something new on your own.
   My group of kids was fond of the pirates. I’ve invented the enchantress who gave a robot to kids and taught them how to program. An evil pirate saw that and trapped the robot while kids were away. When the children found out what has happened, they ran for the robot, but got imprisoned on their own. They had to please the programming wishes of the pirate, and when he got relaxed and fell asleep, the kids took the robot and ran away, taking the sweet treasures the pirate had.

Fail

I tried filming a movie with these kids. We programmed the robot to trace a path through a labyrinth to Princess Leia. When it was done, the robot was supposed to scare the guardians and the princess would escape. But the guardians refused to be scared. I got an idea to hypnotise the guardians with the robot. Magically, it worked, the princess was saved!

NOTE: Don’t expect all will go as it’s planned. Be ready that the plot will be destroyed by these little creatures. To come up with how to handle the situation right away is the funniest part!

Kids of 10–11 years old

These personalities already start considering themselves as adults, care about righteousness a lot and want to do something big.

Fail

I’ve tried playing the pirate game with them, but it turned into the discussion about if the pirate had right to take the robot, and what he should expect by law for such a crime. These kids try to be witty and show off their knowledge when there is a chance.

Successful ideas

1. Make something witty. When it came to the robot programming, we decided to make a magic-8-ball. Kids adored playing with it, hearing their own answers. One girl asked if she’ll get a kitten on her birthday. Hearing “No” she disliked, so she kept asking till she got “Yes”. Her mom heard it and replied “No” instead. Another boy asked if he’ll win on the Math Olympiad and got “Yes” in return. He with his dad were super happy to hear such a prediction.
2. The job of a parent is a mystery to a child. Another good idea would be to create a big project, similar to a standard “adult” project, with tasks, features and scrum delivery. In this age kids are keen to learn the new words to seem more mature than they are. There is no need to come up with some word replacements to what the processes are called. Example of such a project would be writing a game kids design on their own. Give them a chance to state the goals and achieve them.

Interstate 60 movie

NOTE: Working with such kids is the most comfortable for me. They are not the little chickens waiting for an entertainment and they are not as picky as the teenagers.

Kids of 12–15 years old

Teenagers are often called tough because at this age they search for their own lifestyle and often do it through rejecting what they have, inventing and trying something new. Their spur-of-the-moment wish has the highest priority. The successful teacher would be the one who’ll make these children want to learn the subject.

These kids need to invent something and check how it works. Nice thing would be to let them think on their own and rely on their ideas. A teacher has to propose the material and guide these personalities to squeeze the most out of them.

Successful ideas

1. Creating a next series of the Star Wars movie with robot programming or making a Magic-8-ball will be liked. Teens will have a chance to show off how extravagant they are in the ideas of the plot and the prediction phrases for the ball. Programming using the blocks is interesting, but it’s also good if it can be replaced with the written language (JavaScript).
2. Simply sit at computers and program, write a telegram bot or a calculator or a small site. These kids value the skills a lot, especially the ones who came for the programming class. They are there because they want it, see programming as their future job. Some even worry that they started too late! Cheer them up, give praise for successes, try not to notice the failures, and they’ll like you!

Fail

There is always a chance to fail, especially when you try to joke. When making a movie, some got very inspired and were enrolled completely in creating the plot and programming the robot. But others took it in a skeptical way and decided to work on their programming homework. When the opinions are different, and each is strong, just take it as it is.

NOTE: You cannot please everyone.

Conclusions

Don’t try to put programming and all the knowledge you can into the kid as early as possible. Even if you succeed, you’ll take away time, designed for playing dolls, cars and Lego and scheming how adult life will look like. Every age has its purpose and goals.