The First Lesson

Today I started a new project with my 4-year old daughter, partly inspired by the "Kids cant' use computer" article. Also decided to blog it, partly to generate some pressure to keep the project going on.

I'll teach my girl to Use Computers. Like, use command-line tools, editors, understand the OS and the file system. And to Code. I'm sure it'll pay off. Right?

We are starting from a rather challenging position: she can't read or write properly yet. Fortunately, she recognises letters and is able to type them on the keyboard, albeit very slowly. Every keystroke requires a "full table scan" so to speak. 

Today I asked her if she'd like to learn to code and use computers with daddy. I was expecting a negative or neutral response, but she was actually quite enthusiastic to get started. So, why the hell not?

So we had our first lesson. What we did was

• Learn to open the Terminal for command-line magic
• Learn to use the "say" command as in "say mila", "say daddy". It was cool to have the computer speak. The real reason for this was of course to get some practice on using the keyboard and finding the keys.
• Learn to type the special characters !:.
• That's it!

We both enjoyed the first lesson. She said wants to have yet another today, so I deem it a success.