Use Type-in Programs to Teach Kids to Code

Type-in programs were big in the 80's. Virtually all computer magazines and books use to publish code listings in BASIC. Kids spent hours at a time to type-in the programs, debug them and see them run on their Commodore / Apple II or ZX-Spectrum computers.

Although this method of entering programs is not very efficient, it is still a great tool of learning to code. Lots of kids that type-in programs in the 80's are professional programmers nowadays.

I was thinking about this method of type-in programs and I strongly believe that can still be used in education today. Of course, instead of BASIC we need to use a modern language such as JavaScript.

To demonstrate this technique, I put together a free booklet with small type-in programs for kids. As a parent or educator, you can download the book, print the programs and ask kids to type them in.

... And the whole ebook is free on my site!

Parents and educators: If you have coding knowledge yourself please go ahead and invent new mini-programs for kids. Print them and ask the kids to type them in.

Looking forward on the book and on this method!

Regards,
Adrian