Engaging Interface
Scratch offers a visually appealing and user-friendly interface that makes it accessible for kids and beginners to learn programming concepts.
Community Support
The platform has a large and active community where users can share projects, get feedback, and collaborate with others, fostering a sense of community and support.
Educational Value
Scratch is designed with a strong pedagogical foundation, helping users to develop problem-solving skills, logical thinking, and creativity.
Drag-and-Drop Programming
The block-based coding in Scratch eliminates syntax errors and simplifies the process of learning programming logic, making it ideal for beginners.
Free to Use
Scratch is completely free to use, which makes it accessible to a wide audience without any financial barriers.
Portable
Being web-based, Scratch can be accessed from any device with an internet connection, providing ease of access and flexibility.
I remember a few post of games made by children in Scratch https://scratch.mit.edu/ For example: * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23892698 (My daughter tried to use Scratch, but it’s too difficult to cut&paste and move blocks of code, she preferred a text based programming language, so YMMV.).
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2 days ago
I think going straight to Switch would likely be a tall order. I’d start him off with something where he can be successful right away, writing something he can play on his own computer or share with friends easily. Scratch[0] is often used to start kids out with programming. He may already use it in school, I know my nephew does, who is around the same age. I made a silly little game in Scratch about a year ago to…
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17 days ago
For anyone interested in working on visual programming professionally, we use it for creation in Rec Room in a system I built called Circuits https://blog.recroom.com/posts/2021/5/03/the-circuits-handbook It has a real place among novice programmers. We even have some experts who use it as a fun alternative to writing text. I don’t see visual systems as an effective way to replace everything us experts are doing…
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about 2 months ago
After some days, my sister, who was in class 2 then, came to me and showed me the first program she wrote. It was not a code-based program but a visual program using software called Scratch 3.0. It is similar to NODE-RED but with a different approach, focusing more on programming than wiring together hardware devices. It contains all the node blocks needed to build a simple program without any coding knowledge and…
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3 months ago
Dare I say, Scratch? https://scratch.mit.edu/.
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3 months ago
LiveCode is about the closest literal logical successor to HyperCard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiveCode?wprov=sfti1 That said, I think Scratch is a better learning environment these days and you can develop workable apps in the style of HyperCard. There are plenty of tutorials, documentation, and examples to work from. https://scratch.mit.edu.
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5 months ago
And https://codecombat.com, which has been around for a while now. I think this paradigm (navigating a character using “move” function invocations) is good but kind of exhausts its usefulness after a while. I question whether my daughter learns coding this way or just is playing a turn based top down platformer. The most code like thing is when you use ‘loops’ to have characters repeat sequences of moves. I…
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7 months ago
+1 Scratch! My son started with it, then expanded into Roblox/Lua. Children can download other people’s games and experiment there. Scratch also has pre-made art, sounds, music. https://scratch.mit.edu/.
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8 months ago
I am also going to highly recommend Scratch[1]. That is what got me into a programming around that age. You can even help him make a website to host his games on. [1]: https://scratch.mit.edu/.
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8 months ago
This ! Learning to code will come after, spending time with your son writing down ideas might be more fun at first and it’s a good time to teach him that games are thoughts first and then coded after. I would have recommended Scratch [1] for a first introduction instead of hoping into code right away, but since he is 9yo he will most likely want to hop on big game engine like he sees his favorite youtubers doing….
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8 months ago
How about using https://scratch.mit.edu/ ?
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8 months ago
Scratch.mit.edu is a highly-recommended place to start [1] https://scratch.mit.edu/ > Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children and a coding language with a simple visual interface that allows young people to create digital stories, games, and animations. Scratch is designed, developed, and moderated by the Scratch Foundation, a nonprofit organization. [2] 1: https://scratch.mit.edu/.
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9 months ago
Https://scratch.mit.edu/ (Scratch version 2).
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10 months ago
Someone who uses scratch.mit.edu (like me).
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10 months ago
Now that I think of it, I did start game development on scratch before going right into java (because of minecraft).
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10 months ago
I’m looking for the best systems to help a 4/5 year old get the basics of programming. My daughter has shown interest in what I do, and loves puzzles and building things. Looking for something visual and fun that can start her down the path of logic and creating with computers. I have a passing familiarity with Scratch [1], which I’m now looking into more, but am hoping others can share their knowledge and…
– Source: Hacker News
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10 months ago
I wouldn’t start from scratch. I would start with Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/.
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10 months ago
If only I had known about Scratch earlier!
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11 months ago
I’m not sure if your 4.5yo is old enough to try Scratch[1] but nothing is too young these days. My elder got into Scratch around that time. These days, my younger one is into https://code.org and she make things go around, do stuffs, etc. 1. https://scratch.mit.edu.
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10 months ago
Mashing this up with something like https://scratch.mit.edu/ would float my boat :).
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11 months ago
I’m not sure how this reduces the barrier to game developement. There are already lots of free assets and game engines designed for making arcade games that are a lot easier then say Unity or Unreal. Like https://arcade.makecode.com/ or https://microstudio.dev/ or https://scratch.mit.edu/.
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11 months ago