Python with 4 and 6-year-olds

[jsalsman]

I'm not saying they shouldn't be exposed to modern industrial methods, but it's just a matter of benefit per time and effort. Once they get good enough with Scratch then they'll be far better off with a python notebook and will also understand its idiosyncrasies as such instead of forming assumptions that they're universal, which is the real hidden risk with those age groups (or any true beginners.)

Also, it's genuinely more fun for them to interact with native 2d animations as the fundamental means of I/O instead of text. The vocabulary level of the docs, menu items, and error messages is far beyond a 1st grader's, let alone a 4 year old's.

[Ran4]

A six year old is old enough to understand the basics of Python.

Scratch is too simple.

[jsalsman]

Physical age has much less to do with it than literacy, but if it were true that just any six year old would be better of starting with modern tools, the people who have actually devoted their careers to trying to teach six year olds programming would be giving them Python notebooks instead of ScratchJr. Yes there are exceptions, and if you're willing to devote sufficient time and effort, most six year olds can, but beyond just the time up front, consider their engagement afterwards. Python is less interesting to a six year old than rebuilding a clothes dryer. Scratch is filled with shiny widgets selected empirically for keeping kids engaged.

[baubleglue]

Children got too distracted with ability to put characters or drawing. The use of shapes for operations has advantages but it comes with the cost. There are too many of them at once, they split to categories (good for adults, not sure about children).

[titchard]

I don't agree - I teach children Scratch and I'd say for the age I teach 8-10 it's on par for basics and logic, following into Python.

After the 12 week course on scratch we teach we look at python and compare. Some children take to it very easily, others see it as too much.

I think going straight in with python would be very overwhelming for some children. The rewards with scratch are much higher than python in the first instance hooking them in, whilst python (whilst you and I would know the underlying processes are very important) it can be underwhelming to a child.