Comments on: Kids Can Learn Programming From Scratch!

By: Michael Littman

Michael Littman — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:06:14 +0000

What is it that BASIC does that Scratch doesn’t?

By: Michael Littman

Michael Littman — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:01:41 +0000

I’d be interested to know what sort of complicated things you felt you couldn’t do. I’ve been finding Scratch to be an excellent language for writing interactive programs.

By: Linden

Linden — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:54:58 +0000

Renee,
My kids, 8 and 9 are in the same situation.
I would suggest looking at Alice.org if Scratch is not cutting it. Alice has a text only option where he can work directly in Java code as well as the visual interface.
For me the next step will be C# in the free Express edition. With the free XNA Game Studio they can write games to run on PC or XBox.

By: Renee

Renee — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:43:14 +0000

I found this discussion while researching appropriate programming languages for my son. He is only 8 but quite gifted and scratch is just not cutting it. I have thought of having him learn c++ but it seems like it will not be gratifying to him in a timely manner. Computers are his first love and I would like to see him harness that interest into some solid learning. Any suggestions? I need something I can teach from home. FWIW I was a computer science major for three years but that was 20 years ago and I have not programmed since – so my knowledge base is ancient but I understand a bit more than the average so I will be able to help guide him.

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:42:37 +0000

I want to reply to a comment where some guy starts(out of nowhere) telling people what age he learned programming and it was something ridiculously stupid like 4 1/2 and then I think he went on to say that average people deserve to die when some one pointed out that he must have skipped about half a dozen chapters from a programming book in order to do that. I will explain it that no one regardless of how intelligent you are would ever know why to write #include based off of how much faster you finished your math test in high school. There is a book with a title and all the information and definitions that any one could read. Intelligence does not matter at all.

By: perihan

perihan — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:02:58 +0000

someone can help me for my project? if there is,add my mail:tatlisekercim@hotmail.com

By: perihan

perihan — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:51:18 +0000

hi.Ä± want to learn something.is scratch being used in schools and What are the consequences if it is used?

By: Guy McDowell

Guy McDowell — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:07:04 +0000

Chances are the kid won’t go into programming as a career anyway. I’m average and I did well with programming and IT in general. Heck I don’t even know my times tables by heart and I still did alright. Why? Because I have a solid grasp of logic.

By: NIcole

NIcole — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:31:14 +0000

I’ve done a few workshops with middle school and high school students and I have to say that for students who have never programmed before and “thought” they had no interest in doing so, Scratch kept them occupied, engaged, and involved for the duration of these 3 hour workshops. As a former teacher, I was lucky to keep them engaged during a mere 45 minute class!

I think we make a mistake in thinking programming is only for a certain “type” of person. Scratch goes way beyond that because it develops critical thinking and problem solving skills. Kids don’t need to know more “stuff”, they need to know what to do with it and how to manipulate it to make something that hasn’t been seen or done before. Exposing them to Scratch, not as a programming introduction but as an exercise in developing higher order thinking skills, serves a much higher purpose than tying it to just computer science.

By: GL22

GL22 — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:29:12 +0000

I tried Scratch coz i was curious about it. (I’m 21 years old btw) It’s fun, but i prefer SmallTalk. SmallTalk seems way better than Scratch… and they have similarities…. SmallTalk is also easy to learn.. Why Scratch when you can SmallTalk?