[AMA] what should my son learn next

Hi, friends - Iā€™m looking for a little guidance. My 12-year old son just taught himself Python through your site. Bravo to codeacademy for making it possible! (And of course, props to Antonio for doing the lessons himself.) My question: what language next? Is there a particular order he should be following?

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Hey @m6d9s3, weā€™re glad Antonio is having fun with Codecademy! I was a grade school teacher for a few years and this warms my heart. :smiley:

Iā€™d say what matters the most is what Antonio wants to do with code! Before moving on to a new language, I would recommend he tries to build something completely on his own with his new Python knowledge!

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I might give a front end language a try. like javascript, mixed in with some html/css. This would give him a chance to create visual applications and share them with others. Thereā€™s no ā€˜orderā€™ at this point, just picking up what feels interesting and exploring the capabilities! From there it will start to become apparent whatā€™s next, based on your goals.

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I agree with Jamie, I think the best guide here is Antonio himself and what he enjoys! In terms of building up a combination of languages, whether for a kid or for an adult, it depends entirely on your goals, as different languages do different things. You can read more about that here. If you want to give Antonio a bit of structure, as Chris said going for a front-end language to build a website might give him something that he would find easier to show to friends and family vs. a program.

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no particular order, personally, i would let him work on python a little more.

find other sources (like sololearn) to practice python more, let him build things.

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If your son is interested in Python and web development as a whole, you could try showing him our post on which language(s) to learn.
:slight_smile:

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(nerdy stuff inbound):eyeglasses:itā€™s a wonderful thing that younger and younger people are being introduced to code this helps with their futures because 90%+ of jobs will require basic coding skill!

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Thank you so much, friends. What a wonderful community this is! He doesnā€™t quite know what he wants. The original impetus was the fact that he got a raspberry pi and wanted to learn how to use it. He is very enthusiastic about video games like minecraft, and I would like to find a way for him to make a link between his passions and his language learning. Does that provide any more clues?

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Oh yea! Definitely let him learn more python as you can code some cool stuff using python and raspberry pi. I even have a little booklet that teaches some basics in using the raspberry pi such as setting up, freezing water, building a basic warehouse quickly, teleporting etc.

There are definitely some online resources that gives some nice guides. This will also help him expand his knowledge in Python and have fun with it!

(If you want the booklet, I can link it to you. Iā€™ll need to upload it first. It contains some basic stuff, the code and a summary of whatā€™s learned).

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Al Sweigart has a couple of great free books on coding games in Python. The books are written for all ages, so your son should really enjoy them :slight_smile:

https://inventwithpython.com

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Coincidentally we had another question today about making video games, check it out!

Iā€™ll post a few more examples of making games on Codecademy there. :slight_smile:

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It mostly depends on what your son is looking to do. To me its like asking which foreign language does he want to learn. Where I would simply reply: ā€œWell where does he want to go?ā€.

Anyhow I would recommend learning a few different types of languages since each type tends to look very similar to each other.

A loosely typed language like Python (Loosely typed meaning that it does not follow stringent rules)

A strongly typed language like C, C++, Java, C#, ectā€¦ (These tend to follow stringent rules)

Designing languages like HTML, CSS (These are used usually to make pretty websites, dashboards, or Apps)

Database languages like SQL (used to sort and get data from databases)

Git to be able to do server side things and make Git commands to the website GitHub (Most of my professors love GitHub)

In the end though I would recommend you to just keep on handing him little projects or extensions to an existing project and post the changes onto GitHub. GitHub tracks changes and allows you to put up as many projects as you desire which helps later on when he is looking to get hired since he can just use his GitHub page as a portfolio. Plus he will naturally start using these languages since they all have their utilities.