0

My son (10 years old) has been experimenting with Scratch on the Raspberry Pi.

He recently got a new book on Scratch programming that he likes, but it appears that the syntax is slightly different and it seems to have been written for the Online Scratch editor.

What are the differences? What are the pros/cons of using one v.s. the other?

And are the differences vast enough to warrant returning the otherwise excellent book? Or to have him switch to only use the online editor?

I don't want him to be dismayed and looking for the best route from anyone experienced with Scratch.

I imagine that this is a great learning opportunity to appreciate the nuanced differences across versions of a language and development platform, but I am looking for any idea as to whether it might cause unnecessary frustration in the learning process.

Thanks.

chaimp
  • 103
  • 2

1 Answers1

3

I am helping out at CoderDojo's where kids take their first steps in programming and Scratch is by far the most catching for them to pick it up. You are doing a good job getting him interested. Don't worry about the minor differences between those Scratch-versions, usually kids are very good and adapting to that.

To keep a kid interested, they need an idea and a goal about what to make next. That's where you can help. Talk to him about what project to make next. If he gets stuck, help him along. Even better, get friend to join and have them make a menu with all their projects in it. Have him look around for sample projects for solutions and ideas.

Raspberry is made for sending signals via the GPIO-pins, so get in some hardware-parts like a lot of led's, buttons and motors etc. If he likes traffic lights, he can build them. If he likes Lego, buy some of that. And most of all: make it be fun! You are already doing a great job, just keep it up.

Tim van Steenbergen
  • 58
  • 1
  • 7