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So my son is starting out in September in Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Tech ( Ranked No. 1 by US News). A little bright , he scored a 93% in Maths in SAT while still in 8th Grade ( taken to become a member of John Hopkins centre for Gifted & Talented), and maintians a perfect 4:00 GPA overall. He did a little web desinging course in middle school. He will start learning programming in High School from September in his first year. I think the school’s focus is on java.

He wanted to start learning programming this summer in his spare time and is keenly awaiting the day when he can program games on Iphone. Can the experts out here suggest the learning path and the best books, online course, certifications etc. to get him started in programming and go on to learn more.

Thanks
CK

p.s- Altough, I am one of the first users of Pmachine/EE since 2002, I have no knowledge of programming and need a better mentor than me for my son!!

I am happy for your son but your post makes me feel rather old. I did a UK ‘O’ level in computing and failed miserably - it turned out to be all applied maths and sums in different base (i.e. not 10) - none of it was my strong point. We wrote simple maths problems and punched cards out to create the punched tape that was fed into the telex printer once per week on a Wednesday afternoon when we were allowed to connect it (via phone line) to the Thanet Computer Centre. If your programme had a loop in it you got automatic detention. I was light years ahead of my time in wanting to use computers.

It depends what your son wants - if he is to tie in his web designing course then why not learn php.

With those kinds of qualifications, your son can start with anything and be successful. Give him some pointers and let him see what he likes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_programming_language describes a number of introductory programming systems. I have not looked at nearly all of these, but have seen some. Scratch is great fun, and good even for younger kids. It is good at teaching control structure, but does not do procedures. The introductory Java IDE’s might also be good.

Another good discussion is at http://www.kidslike.info/computer_programming_educational_programming_languages

I am partial to Python as a beginner’s language. A lot of introductory material available for new programmers: http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide/NonProgrammers.

I would say that PHP is too idiosyncratic for a first programming language.

I taught myself FORTRAN on punch cards in eighth grade in 1970 with old but good IBM manuals. Material specifically for kids is not necessary if he is motivated.