Originally posted by Marcus Laubli:
While studying for my SCJP exam, one of my daughters asked if she could learn to program too. Why not? I asked. Then I realized that there is very little (free) 7/8/9th grade material out there that she would understand.
Anyone have any ideas?
in those grades, she should be able to grasp the "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist" textbooks. they're free to download and use under a fairly liberal license.
Java version;
Python version.
i don't want to sound like an off-topic evangelist for an entirely different programming language, but if she has truly
no previous programming experience, Python might actually be easier to get her started with. she could learn algorithms and logical thinking without having to struggle with the machine-dependent details of typed variables, having to remember to cast and match types, and so on.
then again, she'd probably look to you for assistance, and if
you're very familiar with Java, you might be able to help her better by using a language you wouldn't have to be learning yourself as the two of you went along. not that Python is at all hard to learn, but it's always tricky to learn while in teaching mode.
if your daughter is particularly bright (or you particularly cruel, perhaps?

) you might look into
How To Design Programs, the free textbook to accompany the
Dr. Scheme language environment. it might be a bit too advanced for her grade level, though, and naturally, you'd have to be proficient in Scheme yourself first. also,
she might come out of that experience either very frustrated with programming, or else proficient in Scheme; you be the judge of the wisdom of that...

[ January 25, 2005: Message edited by: M Beck ]