How do I get my son or daughter interested in computer programming? (opens in new tab)

In her blog, the author (Elaine Ou) is conflating different meanings of the word "interested".

When people ask, "how do I get my daughter _interested_ in computers?", they often mean:

- "interested" == "find joy/play/fun"

But Elaine's essay is answering it by interpreting "interested" this way:

- "interested" == "understand and value the practical business work skills"

Using substitution, Elaine interprets the question as: "how do I get my daughter to understand and value the practical business work skills in computers?"

It doesn't mean Elaine's perspective is not valid. However, we have to be aware that she's not addressing what many people mean by being "interested".

Lol, I had an answer all written out, then read the last few lines of the article. Nice bait and switch, I actually enjoyed it. I agree, to make money, learn about money. Otherwise you'll always just be someone else's worker/slave... I also enjoy the answers here by people who obviously just read the headline or first few paragraphs, as I did when I formulated my first comment. Well played.

How old are they? My boys are 5 and 9 and they aren't really interested in "programming" but they love the red stone things you can do in Minecraft. Red stone is basically electricity so they have learned to solve real problems and challenges (to them) like creating doors that open with pressure plates, etc. From there we got an AWS IoT button which will spin up a Minecraft server at the touch of a button.

All of this to say it may help to go into their world instead of them coming into yours. Find interesting problems or challenges they are having and show them you can help. Sometimes my being able to do something with programming will get the, "Whoa, how did you do that?!" Response. I don't expect my kids to actually write code right now but they do know that programming is voodoo magic and they are very interested in it.

I was interested in programming at a very young age, because of video games. I wanted to learn to make them. I was interested in video games first. What do they like to do on the computer? Can you find an opportunity for them to make their own version of whatever app they like to use?

I think I was quite naturally inclined to it, though, just like many other girls and boys. If you give your child opportunities to get involved, and they're not interested, it might be a sign that this is not their calling. Perhaps give them opportunities to get involved in something else, and see what naturally grabs them. This is more likely to help them maximize their talents.

Make it a part of the famil prank tradition, to boobytrap Alexa and the likes with cusotm code. In oder to get "back" on you- they need to learn this.

Forbid it.

What I don't recommend is going through programming exercises on the web, which seems to be a popular path that usually ends in stall-out.

Whether young or old, I think it's important that the person start by asking themselves what they would like a computer to do for them. From there, you can start to bite off small pieces of the challenge, slowly making progress towards something they actually care about.

A good question, but unfortunately no answers.

The statement - "Nobody becomes a software engineer because they love writing code" - is definitely wrong and it's a bit sad that the author isn't enjoying the magical act of crafting complex machinery out of nothing.

A lot of people enjoy exactly that, and don't really care for the end-product, although I have to say that really good programmers enjoy coding as much as they are interested in the goal.

Computer science can be applied to nearly every subject in which they're already interested. That's your gateway.

Scratch.mit.edu by MIT is a great introductory vehicle. They can play and share games that they or their friends have created. And then take games they like and change how they work.

Fantastic!

Start some microcontroller project with your kind that makes something cool using micropython or with C.H.I.P. make some Lua games.

Maybe try some of those programmable toys, like LEGO NXT or simpler ones like Sphero?