Getting my younger brother started on programming
- by SmartLemon
My younger brother is 13 years old, I started programming when I started to develop Android applications when I was 15, last year my brother gained an interest in it and he would always pestering me about letting him make something himself, so I wrote him a few tutorials and he built himself a small application that had a few buttons that did something, I think you put in your dob and it would tell you what day you were born on, he took a couple of days building up to his final application, maybe even a week, learning everything he needed.
Since then he hasn't really done much more because I have been engulfed in work and such where I have my own programming problems to sort out.
I told him that when he was my age (I am 17) that he should be better then me, he was a bit sceptical about this however.
I dont think he has as much logical reasoning as I would think he needs to solve more complex problems, but shouldnt that just develop over time as it did with me?
He has been pestering me for the past week or something to write him more tutorials, but I didn't have time. All I had with me was a playlist I had downloaded from the new boston from youtube for C++, it's about 73 videos.
He is currently about 20-30 videos in, he has come to ask me a few questions about it and thats it.
Should I have really properly started him with C++?
Should I stop him now and start him again on python or ruby?
I know that C++ shouldn't really be a beginners language, especially for someone who is only 13, by the time this question is answered will probably be up to learning about inheritance or something.
Some people may see this as not a real question, but it is, and should be used as a reference for others. I want to know, should I start him on a different language whch is more easy? What language then? And would it be better for me to teach him myself (I would make time) or just continue him with the new boston? There are a few more questions throughout this question but these are the main ones.
Part of the question people seem to be neglecting is me asking whether I should change what language he is learning to another, or since he is already pretty far through the tutorials should I just leave him with C++ and he can learn the other languages freely by himself?
