11 year old beginner (only some scratch experience): Any track appropriate for him? Suggestions of a track to follow?

Greetings! I do personal mentoring for children in computer programming. Feel free to contact me at facebook.com/puklibalazs

I would suggest to start with one of these: "Digital Literacy", "Learn C#", "Learn Java".

The first one is a basic course on computer science and web development. The other two are computer languages which are very common, well evolved, and "easy" to understand - so that they are ideal to start with.

Thanks for your response. Yes Digital Literacy looks like a good start!

Do you feel that continuing with "Learn C#" or "Learn Java" would be better for him to start with rather than a Python track or learning Alice (external site) or MIT App Inventor (external source)? tkx!

Depending on the student's computer aptitude, and I've seen some 11-year-olds with really amazing aptitude, many of the tracks here might be possible choices. I would also consider the student's interests and attention span. Depending on what draws their interest the most, I'd think any of these might be candidates:

• Digital Literacy — also a good, short starter if interests are uncertain
• Learn Python
• Beginner JavaScript
• Web Design
• Front End Development
• Beginner Game Development

UPDATE: I didn't think about low-level languages as good for beginners, but now that I've seen Michael's suggestion I'm finding that intriguing. One thing the C language is used for is programming an Arduino, which is an inexpensive (particularly if you get a clone from Amazon) device that reads sensors and controls outputs such as LED's and servos. They are a ton of fun to play with and might provide extra incentive and immediate feedback for a young C programmer.

Game Development is a great idea. It makes everything more interesting for kids.

MIT App Inventor is not an actual programming framework. It is a great tool, but I was assuming from your comment that our young buddy is ready to take a giant leap into the jungle of "real" programming :) If you are looking for special educational IDEs for children, you can use: Scratch, App Inventor, Microsoft Kodu... etc.

Alice is also a great idea. It is a special thing for education BUT much more complicated and sophisticated - maybe the perfect transition? You decide.

I think in this age, mentoring is a huge factor. I'm only consulting with my clients, I'm not trying to "sell as much working hours as possible". Self-education is very important, but when someone gets stuck, it can be very helpful to have a mentor, and also it is preventing losing motivation.

OK, thanks Balazs. Let me think about all this and will get back to you directly.

Balazs, could you provide me your email? tkx

You can find everything on my profile page, but just in case:

balazsptm@gmail.com

facebook.com/puklibalazs

I definitely recommend doing the first half of the Digital Literacy track to start. Also, all the videos in the Treehouse Club series are made specifically for people like him. Honestly, though, I think it's a better idea to jump straight into more low-level languages than HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or Python like many of the beginner sites (like Treehouse) would recommend. When I was 8 years old, I spent about 20 minutes teaching myself the C programming language with this guide, and it's one of the best decisions I ever made. C is a very low-level language (about as close to the bare metal as you can get without just writing raw assembly code), so starting with that gives over a very deep understanding of how the computer works and how programming works, far more so than if you start with a higher level language like Python or JavaScript (plus, JavaScript is a pretty oddball language compared to everything else out there, anyway), and now I feel like I can learn just about any language in a few minutes. Personally, I highly recommend doing something like that

Thanks for your advice! Will look into all of this. thanks much.