STEVE'S KID'S SOFTWARE PAGE.

    Burn's Hog Weighing Method:
    1. Get a perfectly symmetrical plank and balance it across a saw-horse.
    2. Put the hog on one end of the plank.
    3. Pile rocks on the other end until the plank is again perfectly balanced.
    4. Carefully guess the weight of the rocks.
    -- Robert Burns

Kids Software.

I have been playing with various ways to teach very young children (specifically, my 7 year old son Oliver) how to program computers. I did the obvious thing - which was to snag a copy of Berkely LOGO and port it onto Linux/Xfree, but somehow that wasn't what I wanted - although he finds it deeply interesting, it's more the turtle graphics than the actual programming that interests him. However, if you are interested in a classic LOGO implementation for Linux - let me know. As it ships, Berkely Logo runs on Linux/Xfree - but it seems to have a number of bugs. I fixed the worst of these and wrote a short "Quick Reference Sheet" containing the most useful commands.

My most recent efforts (which were not successful) were to try to interest Oliver's school in doing something experimental. Here is what I proposed:

If you are interested, and especially if you find a school that would be willing to spend a few hours with some second or third graders trying it out - please let me know - I really want to find out what happens.

Back to Steve's Home Page


You can email me at: steve@sjbaker.org