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Ask HN: How do I give my son a head start?

70 点作者 KoZeN超过 14 年前
There are few careers around today that wouldn't benefit from the employee having a better understanding of programming and just IT in general.<p>As well as the fundamentals such as reading, writing &#38; mathematics, I fully intend to introduce my son to computing from a very early age.<p>I was thinking that I could introduce him to things like BASIC not long after he masters the art of counting to ten but I would love to hear from you guys.<p>How would you suggest I give my son a head-start in an IT orientated world? He's 6 months old currently so I have plenty of time!

64 条评论

GiraffeNecktie超过 14 年前
I would just forget about computers and programming completely and focus on the building blocks by a <i>playful</i> approach to solving day-to-day problems with logic and reasoning. Like how do we decide which things belong together? You can also play progressively more complicated iteration games like for-each-time-this-happens-let's-do-this-this-and-this! Or make complicated rube goldberg devices out of household objects and then debug why they don't work.<p>Computers would be just a distraction from the real work of building a foundation in cognitive skills.
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edw519超过 14 年前
Love him. Unconditionally. And make sure he always knows it.<p>Everything else is just details.<p>With this, things will inevitably fall nicely into place, no matter what tactics you take.<p>Without it, he will be fucked up no matter what you do and will be coming to hacker news in 2028 posting, "Ask HN: I'm confused and depressed and don't know why."
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patio11超过 14 年前
Read to him when he is young, with him when older. It is the most stupidly effective academic intervention I'm aware of.
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michael_dorfman超过 14 年前
I'd be careful in this line of thinking, if I were you. Projecting wishes and expectations onto one's children is common, and counter-productive.<p>I was very excited when my daughter, around the age of 10, showed interest in programming. I showed her Scratch (from MIT), but I think my enthusiasm scared her off-- and she dropped it quickly. I regret that I didn't play it a bit cooler.
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ankeshk超过 14 年前
1.<p>Teach him about managing money. Get him into the habit of saving from a very early age. And writing down all the expenses.<p>(Rockefeller had a rule for his kids. He gave them money for all the chores they did. And they had to donate 10% to the Church. And save 10%. But because they had to donate exactly 10% to the Church - and not 9.5% or 10.5%, they were required to keep an account of every penny they received. This: keeping track of money from an early age is the trick to making sure you never end up poor.)<p>2.<p>Teach him confidence. Elocution and public speaking and drama classes.<p>3.<p>Make him love reading. Dr. Seuss. Comics.<p>4.<p>Teach him how to delay gratification. The trick is to focus on other things.<p>5.<p>Teach him discipline in exercising early on. And healthy eating. Sports.<p>6.<p>Play all the wonderful board games besides the popular ones like Monopoly. Excellent for math and logic building skills. And figuring out the winning strategy.<p>These above are the building blocks. Its ok if he learns to code a bit late in life too.
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jberryman超过 14 年前
Get him legos, things he can build with his hands, internalize the process of building, designing, visualizing. Do lots of projects with him. Show him how stuff works. Give him musical instruments to play with and give him lessons.<p>Honestly programming isn't that hard. If he finds it interesting he can start teaching himself at any age, so I wouldn't focus on that. All that said, IANAD. congrats on being a dad!
captaincrunch超过 14 年前
If you'd like to give him a head start, give him room to decide what he'd like to do.<p>Don't limit his abilities, or options.<p>Perhaps he will not be interested in IT? He could be the man to cure Cancer.
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fatso784超过 14 年前
This might sound totally narcissistic but here's how I learned programming: Taught to play Chess at an early age; Taught another language (Russian, even though I never finished) at an early age (note that I didn't really like learning Russian, but it helped regardless); Given Legos and Lincoln Logs. Basically, any toy that uses building blocks encourages the kind of thinking used in programming; Read to often (but not about programming); Taught BASIC (the concept of "goto" goes a long way in realizing what is possible.); Got into creating game mods (as previous user recommended)<p>My parents actually sort of discouraged me from liking programming. If I would have, say, been really interested in chemistry and experimented with chemicals, they would have been less worried than when I would work on the computer for long periods of time.<p>It's also worthy to note that your son may not be interested in becoming a programmer, so don't try to consciously influence him. Surround him with the tools he needs. He'll find a way from there.
ax0n超过 14 年前
The number one thing to do as he grows: allow his curiosity to flourish, even if it means letting him hurt himself a bit. Some learn better through words. Some learn better through visuals. This is mostly rote memory stuff, and it's crap. Everyone learns better through experience, and experience builds both memory and extrapolation. He might only be six months old, but he's already got a keen brain for gathering data and deducing outcomes. It's intrinsic to human nature, and it's commonplace to stifle it with too many boundaries. Don't. I'm not saying you should throw caution to the wind, but don't be as protective as the societal norm says you should be.<p>Allowed to be curious, he'll get critical thinking skills, passion for exploring the unknown and street smarts out of the deal. He'll immediately be better at anything he sets his mind on than those who have been forced into learning only through written and verbal means.
oscilloscope超过 14 年前
Play the board game Go. It's simple, tactile and astoundingly complex. I've found wrapping my head around that game is a similar experience to wrapping my head around programming concepts.<p>Your son will come to you to play board games, whereas teaching programming is something where you'd be driving what your son learns.<p>Building a Go game on the computer is also not that difficult-- but developing AI for it leads deep into math and computer science.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Go" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Go</a>
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apl超过 14 年前
&#62; He's 6 months old currently so I have plenty of time!<p>You do indeed. Don't forget that. You have at least 8 years left before your kid should start doing this kind of thing. Just let him use a computer in a completely natural way, don't force anything on him. Programming is decidedly different from, say, playing the violin!<p>Also, less importantly, skip the shitty languages phase. It's not necessary to go through Pascal or BASIC before you can get to the good stuff: Python will do from the very beginning.
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jph超过 14 年前
Baby Sign Language can jumpstart learning and communication.<p>The best videos (IMHO) are from "My Smart Hands" at <a href="http://mysmarthands.com/" rel="nofollow">http://mysmarthands.com/</a><p>The founder has free videos on YouTube, an iPhone app, and a new Android app (which I use).
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mbreese超过 14 年前
I'd suggest giving them your old iPhone/iPod touch/Android device. My son has been playing with those since he was 1 1/2, and now (2 1/2) he is an expert at the interface. It's quite a testament to the UI to see how well a 2 year old can move around an iPhone. Then, he'll be able to "interface" with computers so much easier. They won't be this foreign thing, they'll be what shows them music videos.<p>From there, you have plenty of time. I know my dad started me out with BASIC when I was ~5: 10 PRINT "HI DADDY" 20 GOTO 10<p>After that, I didn't touch code until I was 13. So ultimately, my advice would be to not push them. If he wants to learn, he'll learn.<p>Just make sure they are familiar with technology, and you'll all be fine. Aside from that... read to him. Now. They pick it up quickly if you keep doing it consistently.<p>But really, don't worry about it and let him be a kid. The inner geek will come.
protomyth超过 14 年前
Reading and Flash Cards. A lot of teachers hate flash cards, but the confidence to do the simple math allows for learning the hard stuff. Never underestimate the value of a good foundation. Learning how to actually use a dictionary might not be a bad idea.<p>[edit] when the kids old enough: legos - lots and lots of legos
brianbreslin超过 14 年前
I read through almost all the comments and no one mentioned spoken/written non-computer languages.<p>I would say introduce him to at least one foreign language like spanish, french, german, portuguese, japanese, or chinese. I learned spanish as I learned english, by age 3 I was fluent in both. I had the advantage of having a spanish teacher for a mother, but it gave me the building blocks for understanding the rules and concepts of other languages (on 4 so far, working on 5th). These rules, grammatical, syntactical, etc. can help with picking up things like computer programming later. I mean they are called languages for a reason.<p>I think that giving your son excellent communication skills will give him a huge leg up on all his peers. Make sure to include reading in both english and another language too if possible.
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GavinB超过 14 年前
1. Act rationally. Let him see you making rational decisions, and searching for explanations.<p>2. Make him talk for himself. Encourage him to meet and talk to as many different people as possible. This starts early, when he wants to hide behind your legs, and it's probably the most valuable skill he can have.
chadgeidel超过 14 年前
If I may add to the wonderful suggestions listed here. Give guidance - of course, but then let him go. <i>Get "into" whatever it is that he is "into".</i> Especially if you don't like it (and, it's not like mistreating puppies or some such). I love my parents, and they did the best job they could raising me, but there were some aspects of my childhood that I wish they were more actively involved with.<p>Mind you - I'm not blaming them - on the contrary I'm fully aware that every step I've made lead me to the point I am at in life and only I am responsible for my position.
ryanteo超过 14 年前
"Teach yourself programming in 10 years" by Peter Norvig (<a href="http://norvig.com/21-days.html" rel="nofollow">http://norvig.com/21-days.html</a>)? There's Alice and Squeak. Funnily enough, I actually think I was more fascinated by the map editor in Starcraft than the game itself. (Of course, I've only started picking up a little bit of programming recently.) I think for slightly older kids who would have fun building robots and physical things that can do tasks, there's Lego Mindstorm.<p>Other than that, there are 2 books which cover kid prodigies which might be applicable. "In Code - A Mathematical Journey". [<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Mathematical-Sarah-Flannery-David/dp/1861972229" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Mathematical-Sarah-Flannery-Dav...</a>] It's the story of Sarah Flannery, who got interested in cryptography at a young age due to her family environment.<p>Another interesting book is "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin. [<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performance/dp/0743277465/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&#38;ie=UTF8&#38;qid=1288770961&#38;sr=1-1" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Perform...</a>] Josh Waitzkin was an American chess champion, before burning out at around 20. He then picked up Taijiquan, becoming the Taijiquan world champion.
jonnathanson超过 14 年前
We learn what we love. Best way to get him to learn computers is to get him to love computers. You'll be setting him up for a life of social awkwardness and little success in the dating game, but you'll be doing the right thing for him. :)<p>I would start him on games and other "fun" stuff. Teach him to make his own games via BASIC or some equivalent thereof. If it's fun, he'll want to do it on his own. If you're just shoving it at him and it's not fun, he'll resent it and may even rebel against it.
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zorkerman超过 14 年前
I find my son is surprisingly patient (more so than anyone else) to listen to me talk, even in technical depth, about the problems I'm working on at work. I even let him sit in my lap sometimes and watch me work on some code while I try to explain it to him. He certainly doesn't understand much, but he can see my interest and that makes him interested.<p>Sometimes you get a gem too.<p>After explaining something at work I asked him what he thought of my job and he said, "It sounds like your job is hard dad."
istari超过 14 年前
There are some things that you cannot help BUT teach your children. It's part of who you are, your daily habits, your aspirations, your worldview of what a parent should be.<p>Just by being your son, he is guaranteed 1000s of hours of practice and exposure to these topics.<p>For example, for me, it was Chinese math textbooks from an early age. I ended up attending Stanford, but my social skills suffered. For your son, I would guess reading, writing, math, and programming are covered.<p>Other things are invisible to you, and will be nonexistent to your son unless you identify and pursue those topics despite your unfamiliarity to them. For example, I didn't know what "sports" were, and still do not to this day. It's such a large part of society, but does not exist to me.<p>You should figure out what's "free" and what's "missing" for your son simply as a result of growing up in your household, and plan your educational priorities with that knowledge in mind.<p>One last thing: expose him to as many different people and social situations as possible. Camp, church, sports, etc etc etc. Whatever involves heavy interaction with other kids and people. The more the better. You may have to get heavily involved yourself to do this properly. Social skills, just like any other human ability, is simply 1000s of hours of practice.
daviding超过 14 年前
Time. That's it, nothing more - just spend time with him. Reading, playing and doing lots fun things.<p>I have two kids and had massively complicated plans on how to 'program' them (and I mean that with nothing but respect for what you're trying to do) but you can over-think this. By all means encourage, support and mentor them but try not to project your ideal image of what they should be too soon.<p>All the little dude needs is your attention and time - things will work out great. Good luck!
ary超过 14 年前
First and foremost I want to commend you for caring enough as a parent to be thinking about this, but I think you're asking the wrong question. While not a <i>parent</i> myself I believe I can speak from my experience of once being a <i>child</i>.<p>It is my humble opinion that children should be slowly, <i>slowly</i> introduced to technology. The first example that comes to mind is my own introduction to a pocket calculator in the late 1980's. I was given one before I had been exposed to the intermediate concepts of mathematics and looking back it hurt <i>much</i> more than it helped as it immediately became a crutch. I became more interested in getting the problem done than learning from the experience.<p>A slow and methodical approach to learning is what works best for <i>me</i>, and may not be optimal for everyone. Laying the right foundation is pretty much the only way to excel, and given the perverse incentives that abound in (America's) public schools you need to pretty much accept that it's up to you to make this happen for your child. As someone who didn't have it I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a parent that is intensely interested in helping you build from simple concepts to the advanced, learn how to learn, and how to think critically about everything you encounter. Having someone there to help you cope with the anxiety of being a novice (at life <i>and</i> learning) is worth more than I can express. Making sure your child understands the core of a concept before he or she has access to tools that shortcut and accelerate its use is paramount.<p>Also, don't be disappointed if they want to write, sculpt, draw, or paint all day. We need artists too.<p>Good luck.
zootar超过 14 年前
Kids can start programming a lot earlier if their introductory experience really minimizes frustration and time to gratification. Python is probably a good starting language for teenagers, but for pre-teens, who are much less cognitively mature, you'll have a lot more luck sooner if you introduce them to an IDE with great code completion and the power to make a GUI. Obvious candidates are Visual C# and Visual Basic, but I would strongly consider Adobe Flash as well. Children love making animations with Flash, and Flash's scripting language, ActionScript, has all of the features of a full-fledged programming language.<p>You can start even younger with HTML. HTML isn't programming, but it's relevant training for a developing brain. Balancing brackets, thinking logically, paying attention to detail, and the "write, run, debug" routine are all present when writing HTML.<p>My path to programming started when I discovered a copy of FrontPage Express (an old WYSIWYG HTML editor) installed on my computer. I quickly went from FrontPage, to HTML, to Flash/ActionScript, to Visual Basic, to C++. Obviously, that isn't the logical way for a teenager or an adult to learn programming, but for a child, it was incredibly natural.
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kabuks超过 14 年前
Not a direct answer to your question, but the fact that your son has a father who is asking himself that question already gives him a huge head start.
bdfh42超过 14 年前
1. Restrict TV consumption - help him become selective and not a slave to that time waster.<p>2. Play music - it probably does not matter what type.<p>3. Think very hard about schooling.
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SkyMarshal超过 14 年前
Aside from the good meta points made above, and regarding programming/hacking/IT:<p>1. Get him started with Lisp and/or Scheme first, on Linux.<p>Here's a great story illustrating why (in addition to pg's must-read essays on his site), along with a reference to a great book, The Schemer's Guide (which is out of print, grab one while you can still find one in used stores):<p><a href="http://www.trollope.org/scheme.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.trollope.org/scheme.html</a><p>2. Linux only (or BSD, or Minix, or similar FOSS OS). You learn far more about how computers and computing work using Linux than with Windows or Mac. After he's become proficient with recursive thinking and all the other goodness Lisp teaches, get him K&#38;R, a laptop or PC with Linux on it, and kernel hack with him.<p>3. Throw out the TV. 100% trash. Even 'educational' stuff is not really educational in that it is passive learning, which does no one any favors. Learning is doing, analyzing, deconstructing, hacking, making, building, not passively watching.<p>4. Second the advice to read to him and with him as much as possible. For all the reasons mentioned above.
wglb超过 14 年前
Here is a good approach: Answer every question he asks. Help him find his interest. And as Patrick says, read to him now. (Just not Knuth).
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maxawaytoolong超过 14 年前
This theory seems out of fashion, but I still feel like learning to play a classical musical instrument, like the violin or piano, helps develop both the analytical and creative sides of the brain. Plus, you end up with a skill that you can do outside of using the computer.<p>Of course he's still a bit young, but it helps to start as early as possible, especially with the string instruments.
wiredfool超过 14 年前
First, I'd say, be flexible. No learning plan survives first contact with the child.<p>Reading is critical, but I wouldn't push it till the child is ready. Once they're ready to read, it comes quickly when taught correctly. But both you and they need to be willing to put in 1/2 hour a day, every day, for a few months.<p>My kids love knowing how stuff works, and as a engineering type, I'm pretty well situated to give them some good answers and point them in the right direction. David Mcauly's books are good, esp. The way things work, and Castle.<p>Finally, throw away your tv. It makes them do other things that take brainpower, even if it is just playing with dump trucks in the sand box. Also, when there's no tv, the stories come from books (and from their heads), so there much more of a pull to go digging for hose stories in a way that will help them in the long run.<p>Also,YMMV. Kids are all different, and will respond differently to the same people and stimuli. So you have to change and adapt.
jonnathanson超过 14 年前
Another random thought, though probably for slightly older kids: getting into programming through game modding. Starcraft 2 editor, WC3 editor, XML editing/modding, eventually Python editing, etc.<p>The bait is the chance to tweak and modify your games to make them more fun and personal for you. Could be a fun and pain-free segue into programming proper.
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curt超过 14 年前
I owned a kids toy/developmental products company, be careful not to over stimulate your child. Over stimulation is just as bad as neglecting your child. This is the time to introduce your child to multiple languages, just have them playing in the background. Remember children are just large neural networks that work by recognizing patterns.<p>Don't focus on the subject or topic as much as the problem solving process. Children learn through pattern recognition until they have mastered language which leads to thought.<p>Remember children have short attention spans so only have them work on a subject/topic for a brief period or the children will develop a negative connotation with the subject.<p>A few people have mentioned mobile applications they are awesome. I developed a few apps that have been strongly adopted by organizations that work with developmentally challenged children. The simplicity and interactivity really makes a difference.
MtL超过 14 年前
I have three pieces of advice I wish every parent in the world could see:<p>1. Always give your son a new healthy challenge. Let him develop as fast as he can while he is in his prime. If school has a fixed tempo of learning, challenge him in other areas; sports, music, critical thinking, computers, social skills, moral values and ethics, practical skills, helping others, etc.<p>2. Read "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. He has a few points that made me realize just how much it means to come from a good background, with parents that realize how their kid should be raised to become a independent and successful person.<p>3. Realize that your son will never become exactly what you wanted him to be. You can introduce him to the world of IT, and you can show him how it is fun to produce your own programs or web pages, but he has to take the choice to pursue an IT career by himself.
ecaroth超过 14 年前
Obviously you need to get him interested in technology as a whole first - things like ipods, netbooks, etc. What first got me interested in programming when I was a wee lad was 'build your own level' tools for video games like age of empires. The first scripting I ever did was for AI behavior in these games, which really got me going. Then my parents got me a visual basic CD (the reeealllyy simple one) and believe my first program was text-based Russian roulette - A bit morbid for a kid, but you get the point. I think the key for children to be interested in making their own things (programming or otherwise) is to incorporate game mechanics so they can have fun in the process!
forgotAgain超过 14 年前
Talk to your child. Share experiences with him and talk about what you've experienced. You'll both learn a lot.<p>When my daughter was in the early years of elementary school I was just getting started with web development. I was working at home and she showed an interest in what I was doing. I tried to teach the basics of html so she could create web pages. She definitely had the intelligence to succeed at it but it didn't appeal to her. I didn't push it. We found something else to share: reading books and visiting bookstores. She's developed a broad intelligence that is helping her have a fulfilling life without a line of code in sight.
pcestrada超过 14 年前
This book, "Hello World: Computer Programming for kids and adults" <a href="http://www.manning.com/sande/" rel="nofollow">http://www.manning.com/sande/</a> might be a good place to start once your child is older. It's written by a father and son and documents his son's foray into programming using Python. I believe his son was 10 at the time.<p>Personally, my parents got me an Intellivision at the age of 6 and I played it every day. By around 4th grade, I wanted to start writing my own games so they got me a Commodore 64 and a couple of books with game listings in Basic and I started having more fun writing games than playing them.
c4urself超过 14 年前
I was thinking on this recently myself:<p>Throw out the TV (He watches some DVD's on a laptop) Buy Lego/Duplo/Kapla/Puzzles Read to him every night / let him (learn to) read<p>On a side note: Anybody have thoughts on leveraging KhanAcademy.org ?
coffeenut超过 14 年前
I've always thought something like turtle graphics (e.g. <a href="http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/webturtle/" rel="nofollow">http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/webturtle/</a>) is a neat way to teach kids programming/algorithm basics.<p>It's simple enough to understand the basics, yet powerful enough to be engaging enough to keep a child's interest, providing them a direct visual output to their 'code'.<p>I would stay away from the higher level stuff like Visual Basic; there is so much magic going on under the hood that it becomes difficult to really internalize the basic concepts of programming.
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Flemlord超过 14 年前
Get an iPad.<p>We have several apps we use with our 9-month daughter. It's her favorite toy by far--the minute she sees it, she's off like a rocket tugging at the feet of whoever is using it. It has flashcard apps, a cartoon dinosaur that talks to her, books that read themselves to her while highlighting the words, cool fractal displays that respond to her touching the screen, etc. It's well-built and has withstood many baby-related mishaps.<p>If you can get him to love computers, everything else you're worried about should fall into place.
brudgers超过 14 年前
<i>"I was thinking that I could introduce him to things like BASIC not long after he masters the art of counting to ten but I would love to hear from you guys."</i><p>I was talking with a neighbor about how my son was growing.<p>I started to say, "Back when he was little..."<p>Only to be interrupted with, "He's only four weeks old."<p>In ten years, your son will still be a little kid, even though he leads the league in scoring, has a black belt, and can explain photosynthesis.<p>As he grows all he will really want is to spend time with you. Don't waste it. You're building a person not a programmer.
middlegeek超过 14 年前
I attended a TEDx event yesterday and a few parents had their middle-school aged kids there. It was an eye opener for a few of them.<p>My parents watched a lot of PBS or National Geographic type documentaries with me as a child. It gave me a view of the world outside of mine.<p>Internships. I did mine in my late college years but if you can start kids in high school, again it gives them a view of the future (possibly THEIR future) and great insight on paths to take.<p>Best of luck to you!
coliveira超过 14 年前
Teaching how to program may be a fun experience, and I think it is valuable, but I don't know if it is such a big advantage. Because programming takes a lot of time, and that is subtracted from other activities that may be more important in the long run, like reading, socializing and playing. In my case, I will show my son the basics, but I don't think it is important that he really learns that at an young age.
dp7531超过 14 年前
Teach them how to solve problems, and how to work through getting stuck. I've seen lots of kids (and adults) who give up when they can't figure something out right away or get it to work the first time. Learning how to work through this will certainly help once you are ready to introduce more IT specific knowledge, but will be invaluable in several aspects of their life.
paulreiners超过 14 年前
Let him be interested in what he's interested in.
reason超过 14 年前
Just make sure you're ready to accept the fact that he may actually end up disliking programming. And if he does and moves in another direction, encourage him and nurture his passion. I have seen far too many kids prodded by their parents to pursue fields kids have no interest in, myself included. Luckily, my flame never went out, but to others it has.
nprincigalli超过 14 年前
With my 8 years old boy I covered Logo and MIT's Scratch. Now we're getting a pimped up arduino starter kit for us. Oops, I mean, for HIM! ;)<p>We're also fiddling a bit with Google's App Inventor, which uses <a href="http://education.mit.edu/drupal/openblocks" rel="nofollow">http://education.mit.edu/drupal/openblocks</a> jut like Scratch.
benofsky超过 14 年前
Make it clear from the start that success comes from hard work not necessarily raw intelligence, it took me quite a while to overcome this idea instilled in me by my parents (i.e. when your kid does something good, "well done, you must have worked so hard to do that" opposed to "well done, you're so smart")
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leslie超过 14 年前
Alice and Scratch both look like good learning tools (and have educational research backing them up).<p>I think it's more important though that there's someone who loves hacking in the child's life. Children pick up on genuine enthusiasm quickly, whether it's from you, your spouse, or someone who's a role model.
iworkforthem超过 14 年前
I would definitely teach 3yr &#38; 1yr a lot of Mathematics &#38; Finance. Flashcard and iPhone apps definitely helped.<p>IT skills become more of a necessity once they hit school. I see Programming as a form of art, unless you are interested in it. It's not going to be of any interest to them, like it is to me.
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nickfromseattle超过 14 年前
Don't forget about physical development! I think Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a great martial art for kids. It teaches discipline and because you can spar at 95% without hurting your opponent it is very practical in real life self defense situations.
thecombjelly超过 14 年前
Teach him to think for himself. Being able to think things through will definitely help with a career in programming/IT, but it is also very valuable skill for life itself. This means knowing when to 'baby' him and when not to.
wlievens超过 14 年前
In the first few years, I'd say the following three things: LEGO, LEGO and LEGO.
abgoosht超过 14 年前
just let him be a kid
zasz超过 14 年前
My parents gave me a head start in math. I spent hours solving problems instead of socializing or playing outside. I deeply resent them for it. I hope you don't push your son too hard.
stretchwithme超过 14 年前
Answer every question.
teyc超过 14 年前
&#62; He's 6 months old currently<p>You're already 15 months too late. If you haven't started on Baby Einstein, do it right now.<p>In addition, instead of teaching ABCs, teach him to sing Q..W..E..R..T..Y.. . Trust me, it'll make his life a whole lot easier.<p>You can also buy DVDs where kids sing their multiplication tables. Unfortunately, the ones I have come across is in Mandarin. But why not have him learn a second language at the same time?<p>If he doesn't have a sister, buy him dolls so that he can pull them apart to see how things work.<p>You might think I'm jesting, but I'm aware of parents who are doing some of these things.
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2bHalfMad超过 14 年前
head-start in IT is a great thing to do for your kids, but more importantly is providing him a great living environment that cultivates creativity. Let him decide what he wants to be based on his own interest. I know alot of kids grew up learning musical instruments, and developed great skills, won competitions and etc, but never followed up that career after they came out of college.
axod超过 14 年前
buy Lego. Lots of it.
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sybreon超过 14 年前
You DO NOT have plenty of time! Kids grow up so quickly that before you know it, he'll be 18!
crasshopper超过 14 年前
Let him make decisions for himself, explore things, and try at something that matters.
eluttner超过 14 年前
just let him enjoy the time spend with you, give him problems, not solutions. Give him options, be open to listen and show interest in his activities, you will be surprised of how much you will also learn from him.
all超过 14 年前
I was once where you are now. My kids are not yet grown up, but both are older than your six-month old, so I can offer a bit of perspective. I will stick with my eldest here and will detail some of his life at the moment for perspective on what we did. I see this as giving you the benefit of learning from our experience and perhaps (hopefully) improving upon it. Our son is doing a lot better than many children his age, but I am sure there are others who are doing better than he. I, myself, wish I had accomplished half of what he has done by the time I was his age.<p>My eldest is 8 years old. He knows the basics of computer programming already, but he taught it to himself. Where we are native English speakers, he reads and speaks German without an accent. He also understands some French and a smattering of other languages. He reads at a 10 year old reading level, and has mathematics skills at the same level. His writing level is a bit lower. He is also one of the most affable children in his class, known and loved by all, and is generally thought of as conducting himself well, better than many of his peers. He has a solid grasp of the solar system and the fundamentals of astronomy; last year he found the four Galilean moons of Jupiter himself. On his own, he built his own electronics switch when he was barely six and still plays with electronics. He also has recently finished reading about WW1 and WW2, touching upon the Russian Revolution and the Great Depression along the way. And these were not little kid readings. He read "Im Westen nichts neues" - the German original of "All Quiet on the Western Front" - as well as "The Diary of Anne Frank" and several other works from various angles. I am already getting books for him out of the local university library. I say all this to illustrate that he is pretty far ahead of the game in many ways, and he has enjoyed all of it.<p>Now this is the tack that we have taken. First, we are big fans of the Mozart Effect on children. So we played Mozart a LOT when he was in utero and when he was a baby. We tended to play one of the major composers (Mozart, Beethoven, Bach) more often than other types of music until he was seven. We took to heart Hitler's observation about the importance the influences up to seven play. Therefore, we specifically kept from him any music that came out prior to about 1965. After that point, the lyrics and music start to become more complicated as protests and the civil strife of the time enter the music and then become "free love" and all that. We will now let him hear some of that, but not until he had a foundation from which to understand it.<p>One of our major guiding principles is to avoid something that might be abusive. "Abusive" is here defined as allowing something to enter your child's world for which s/he has no or very little framework for understanding it. So we were at pains to give him a framework and help him understand things in life as he encountered them early on.<p>Finally, we try our best not to say "no" when he wants to explore something. Rather, we do our best to find a way that he can safely delve in. For example, he found out the sixth graders at school were studying WW2. He wanted to learn, too, but the school wouldn't let him because he was in third grade. He approached me, and I cobbled together a reading list and a list of films that he could use to work through WW2. As WW2 makes no sense without WW1, he started there. So the point here is to never, ever, EVER limit your child but to take their curiosity as an invitation to find a way to help them interact with the world in a safe way.<p>We started playing and speaking French with him when he was two. When he was three, he caught a whiff of German and decided that he would rather learn German than French, so we switched (I speak both). We used Early Advantage's Muzzy program and cannot recommend it enough. It is an award-winning program that was developed by the BBC for teaching foreign languages to children. Combined with doing it at home, we also sought out speakers of the target language to help him learn. Today, my son reads full length novels in German and is yet to watch Apollo 13 in English. When I ask him what they said on Apollo 13, his first reply is "Houston, wir haben ein Problem!"<p>Finally, we encourage his learning to fight and staying physically fit through judo. This has helped a lot, and my son has consequently taken to reading Sun Tzu and thinking about strategy.<p>So, to sum it up, don't worry about tech. If you take care of the building blocks of logic and language and foster your child's natural desire to explore, there is no end to what they will do and where they will go.
neilxdsouza超过 14 年前
I have a take on this one. Im single right now, but I love programming and wonder how i'd like to pass my trade information to my kids (when I get married and have a family). I see programming at some level in the future as essential - like playing football (or basketball) or bicycling etc. For example, I'm guessing almost every youth will be able to use markdown on a blog post by 2040 or some HTML.<p>First of all today many people see programming as a career. I think by 2040, every kid will be a programmer at some level. I'm assuming by then, a youth then will need to know how to program to survive - it will be a basic elementary skill like we learn in school. So a school curriculum could be something like: draw a face using ascii characters on the screen using print statements in say grade 5. Use a for loop in grade 6. Function call in grade 7. Recursive functions in grade 8. Grade 9 - Advanced programming - introduction to the x86 CPU (optional - you can drop computers and take some other subject if you want). Grade 10 - put the CPU into 32 bit mode with 5 page tables. Do you think these things are very hard for these age level? I don't think so.<p>What if by then - kids played football/or hockey on some days of the week and got together with friends and built a website on another day and played with Lego on yet another? I think by the time you reached college then, and you had Physics as a subject, you would probably write a program to simulate 3 billiard balls on a table and someone strikes them with a 4th. Or implementing a problem solver applying Kirchoff's laws to circuits using Graphs traversal algorithms which she learned somewhere around high school. Today I think people see careers in the IT industry as an end, in 2040 I think Programming will be a means to an end - they will permeate every branch of study you are dealing with - be a Psychology, or Physics or Maths or anything else - creating a website will be normal.<p>A lot of people are saying IT skills may not be necessary because your child won't work in IT; I think basic IT and programming skills will help people in the next generation understand and integrate in the world around them - so for me programming could be right alongside Math that you learn in high school (how many people use factorization of polynomials in day to day life (which we learned in school)? )<p>So I think you are right about teaching your kids some basic programming.<p>I'm just wondering what is it that I had difficulties with/enjoyed: 1) Typing - throw out the QWERTY keyboard and start your child on a Dvorak keyboard from day one - and do typing lessons with her 2) I remember in basic you had screen 2 - 640x480 mode graphics. You could do some great drawing stuff with that - like a circle in a for loop whose radius and origin kept changing with each iteration. 3) Writing PC boot code as more advanced stuff (like when your child reaches high school and still wants to learn more other wise you can stop at recursion and let her take it forward from there)
9ec4c12949a4f3超过 14 年前
Teach your child two things:<p>How to learn.<p>How to keep his/her creative in a world that tries it's best to kill it.