Welcome to the 44th Edition of The Catch Block!

The Magic of Creating

"Dad, can you teach me how to REALLY code?"

I was not expecting my 11-year-old son to ask me that question on a Monday afternoon three weeks ago.

A really nice door on the streets of Marrakech. This town has the most amazing doors and entrances ever.
What's behind door number 1? Photo by Jac Alexandru / Unsplash

See, my kids (B, 11; A, 11; and K, 8) are already somewhat familiar with the concepts behind programming. They've used code.org and MIT's Scratch for a few years now, and K has a great time getting her friendly animals to dance to pop songs.

But B has asked me before if those sites were the same kind kind of thing that I did in my daily job, and of course I had to tell him "no". So, one day, he worked up the courage to ask me the above question. Which led to my dilemma: where should I start?

This article is for paying subscribers only

Sign up now and upgrade your account to read the article and get access to the full library of articles for paying subscribers only.

Sign up now Already have an account? Sign in