Programming 101 (image: desktopnexus.com)

I’m always keen to get my kids into video gaming, although I’m not sure why. Perhaps because of this, I was really taken by a story told by a friend (@Pixelh8) who reviews games on Game People with me. He tells of how a simple programming language (MIT’s Processing) and a little bit of Dad time, turned his kids into budding programmers. I thought you’d like to hear about it to0…

I like sharing my work projects with the kids and they are always more than inquisitive to find out what I am doing. After a long day out with mum, they wandered in to find me still working late on a complex program problem. Recently I’ve taken to using a MIT developed programming language called Processing to help explain things to these young curious minds.

A few minutes after staring at the screen one of my girls (7) started giggling and asked what I was doing. After reading the code she thought I was writing a very strange email to some one about these things called “x” and “y” and “rect.” I explained this was programming and it allowed me to