Teach Your Kids to Code: A Parent-Friendly Guide to Python Programming
About the Author Dr Bryson Payne is a tenured professor of computer science at the University of North Georgia where he has taught aspiring coders for more than 15 years His students have built successful careers at Blizzard Entertainment Riot Games Equifax CareerBuilder and more He was the first department head of computer science at UNG and he holds a PhD in computer science from Georgia State University In addition he works extensively with K 12 schools to promote technology education Dr Payne has been programming for more than 30 years The first program he sold was to RUN magazine Commodore 64 for their Magic column in 1985 for 10 Dr Payne lives north of Atlanta Georgia with his wife Bev and two sons Alex and Max About the Illustrator Miran Lipovac a is the author of Learn You a Haskell for Great Good He enjoys boxing playing bass guitar and of course drawing He has a fascination with dancing skeletons and the number 71 and when he walks through automatic doors he pre tends that he’s actually opening them with his mind About the Technical Reviewer Ari Lacenski is a developer of Android applications and Python software She lives in San Francisco She writes about Android programming at http gradlewhy ghost io mentors with Women Who Code and plays songs about space pirates on guitar
Acknowledgments This book would not have been possible without the exceptional support of the No Starch Press team Thanks especially to Bill Pollock for believing in the project to Tyler Ortman for champion ing and editing and to Leslie Shen Riley Hoffman Lee Axelrod Mackenzie Dolginow Serena Yang and Laurel Chun for their indefatigable editing reviewing marketing and production prowess and for the countless ways they helped me improve this book from my original manuscript And thanks to Rachel Monaghan and Paula Fleming for their help copyediting and proofreading Thanks to Michelle Friend and Ari Lacenski for their thought ful and thorough technical review and to Conor Seng for being the first to read the book and try out the programs at 10 years old Thanks to Miran Lipovac a for his amazing illustrations they bring the kind of life to the text that I could only have dreamed of Thanks to my father-in-law Norman Petty a retired IBM’er who began teaching himself Python using an early draft of the book Special thanks to my wife and best friend Bev for her con stant support and to my amazing sons Alex and Max for helping test every program and suggesting improvements This book and my entire life are infinitely better because of the three of you Finally thanks to my mom Esta who encouraged me to love learning and solving puzzles
Introduction What Is CodIng and Why Is It good for your KIds Computer programming or coding is a crucial skill every child should be learning We use computers to solve problems play games help us work more effectively perform repetitive tasks store and recall information create something new and connect with our friends and the world Understanding how to code puts all this power at our fingertips
