This is the second edition of 'Coding for Kids' and to work through the exercises in the book your child will need to use 'Scratch' - which is free software, developed by MIT for the specific purpose of educating children in computer programming (= coding). So, unlike the first edition, this book is the only financial outlay you need to make - assuming you already have a computer of some kind, and internet access.
The book itself is an excellent example of the quality educational publications from the 'for dummies' team. It has been written by a woman who is an expert in both computing and educating children. It treats the reader as an intelligent individual, while writing at a level a child will easily understand. It is clear, warm and approachable. It won't frighten the less experienced coder, while not patronising, or boring those who are more experienced. There are loads of interesting and confidence-building programmes to learn to write, while at the same time learning a huge amount about how computers and programmes work. It's brilliant stuff. I can remember when PCs first came out - they didn't even have an internal hard drive and the operating system was the DOS prompt - and I've written programmes in FORTRAN and BASIC, using punch cards (nightmare!) - but this - this is a whole new world, one we could hardly have imagined 40 years ago. Much of the underlying theory is unchanged but programming is so much easier - and it is a brilliant thing to see it as such a normal thing that kids can learn to do it. I am going to love working through this book with my grandchildren!
- Amazon Business : For business-exclusive pricing, quantity discounts and downloadable VAT invoices. Create a free account
- Also check our best rated Children’s Book reviews
- Buy this product and stream 90 days of Amazon Music Unlimited for free. E-mail after purchase. Conditions apply. Learn more
