One of the reasons I don't really want to send Ian to public school next year is that he won't be able to spend all day teaching himself computer skills. He wants to be a computer programmer (specifically a game programmer) when he has to go out in the "real world." Learning how to function in the "real world" is one of the reasons we are sending him to middle school next year. The computers class at the middle school teaches typing, word
processing, making a simple graph, internet safety, and how to do an
online search for information. Hmm. No programming. But at least he will learn that he has to get up early every morning and he can't go sneaking off back to bed to read after breakfast.
Ian has been "Scratching" at THIS website for a few months now. HERE is a link to my first post about Ian's projects on Scratch. He has pretty much learned all he can on Scratch and we are now limiting how much time he spends there. Because, really, he could spend the entire day just creating more and more computer games. His best game yet, Glom's Adventure (click to play), is too difficult for me. I just have no jumping skills and I can't get past the first level. I hate having to limit the time Ian spends on creative projects; we wouldn't have kept Laura from writing stories or keep Evie from drawing. But we have to find that happy balance between doing what we want all day with doing what needs to be done...
In honor of Computer Science Education Week, I created an account for Ian over at Khan Academy. He is spending time this week learning JavaScript! The final project is going to be a Christmas card. He believes using JavaScript is a waste of code if you are only making a Christmas card. He believes that using a program like Serif DrawPlus is more appropriate. Well, I want him to make the card for me anyway. Plus, it will count as a project for his Boy Scout Computer Programming merit badge.
And, speaking of scouts, Ian earned his second class rank and two merit badges last night! His merit badges were electronics and game design. We are quite please with what Ian is learning in scouts...
