Resources & links

This is a collection of links to resources I have found educational, entertaining or otherwise useful while learning about computers and programming with my daughter Kaisla.

Blogs

Here are a few blogs that have inspired me about things to do with my daughter and also to start this blog.

Girls Can't Code

Games By Devon

Programming environments

Turtle Roy
Programming environment where you write text based commands to draw shapes with a triangle or turtle or some other characters (click help for instructions how to change the character).

Scratch
Graphical programming environment designed for children.

ScratchJr (iOS only)
Scratch but designed for smaller kids (ages 5-7 according to their own site). Currently only iOS version, Android version coming later.

Hopscotch (iOS only)
Another graphical programming environment designed for kids. Has some game-like "episodes" where you have to perform certain task or just create your own programs/games like with Scratch.

App Inventor
Graphical programming environment to create Android apps. Quite similar to Scratch, but not as easy to use.

Pocket Code
Another graphical programming environment for Android that is similar to Scratch. You can publish programs and download and remix other people's programs and even convert them to standalone Android apps. It also has (an experimental) feature to import Scratch projects into it, so it's an easy way to convert your existing Scratch programs to mobile apps.

Coder
Programming environment for Raspberry Pi to create web stuff. By Google.

Small Basic
A very simple programming language with a friendly development environment for learning basic programming concepts. By Microsoft.

Games

Code.org
Games, tutorials and other resources about learning to code.

Lightbot
Nice game where you guide a robot by programming the instructions. Available in browser as well as iOS & Android.

DragonBox (iOS & Android)
Not really programming, but very nice and educational games that teach algebra and geometry.

Gadgets etc.

Raspberry Pi
Small and cheap computer that can be used to learn programming (and lot's of other things).

Kano
Kano is a Raspberry Pi with some peripherals. Nice concept, but quite expensive compared to just the RPi.

Pimoroni Shop
All kinds of fun little accessories for Raspberry Pi.

Lego Mindstorms
Make robots etc. with Legos and program them to do stuff. Haven't tried these yet, but would like to.

Misc

Hello Ruby
A children's book that teaches programming concepts through a fun and engaging story & some hands-on activities. For kids between 5 and 8 years old.

Europe Code Week
Coding related events around Europe & a listing with coding related resources.

Developer Kids Club
Submit your kids coding project to DigitalOcean Dev Kids Club and they'll send you a certificate and a toy.

In Finnish

Koodikirja
Opas koodaamisen alkeista Turtle Roy ohjelmointiympäristössä.

Koodikoulu
Useilla paikkakunnilla järjestettäviä tapahtumia, joissa 4-9 vuotiaille lapsille opetetaan ohjelmoinnin alkeita.

Koodikoulu -opetusmateriaalit

Koodikerho
Vähän vastaava kuin koodikoulu.

Koodikerho -opetusmateriaalit