Need Rec: Book to teach about computers and BASIC at an eight year old level

[Camiel Vanderhoeven]

I learned BASIC around that age. I used the Usborne book, which has been
made available as a PDF file by the publisher:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxv0SsvibDMTUXdYTnRaTy1LLVE/view
Op 27 mei 2016 8:12 p.m. schreef "Electronics Plus" <sales at elecplus.com>:

http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Handbook-Encyclopedia-Computer-Language/dp/09327
60333/ for the basics of BASIC
http://www.amazon.com/BASIC-Computer-Games-Microcomputer-David/dp/0894800523
/ for games he can program in BASIC
from there go to
http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Adventure-Games-Your-Computer/dp/0345318838/
and http://www.amazon.com/More-Basic-Computer-Games-David/dp/0894801376/

One designed for elementary school kids that does not use BASIC is
https://www.amazon.com/Coding-Kids-Dummies-Camille-McCue-ebook/dp/B00MFPZASK
which works on a Mac or PC.


There is nothing like making your first program work to make a youngster
feel like a god!

Cindy

-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ali
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2016 12:29 PM
To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
Subject: Need Rec: Book to teach about computers and BASIC at an eight year
old level

So somewhat OT - I've setup an 8 year old w/ an IBM PC XT w/ CGA. To say he
is less than impressed is understating things :). However, I am determined
that he will learn basic computer terminology, architecture, history (i.e.
how we got here) and at least get his feet wet with programming by learning
BASIC this summer.

Apparently teaching is not my strong suite - while I can talk about a larger
number of the above topics, especially at his level, organizing them in a
way to make sense is the problem. I was wondering if anyone could recommend
a good book that gets the basic stuff out of the way (what is the CPU,
memory, storage, etc. what are different the parts called, etc.) and maybe
another one that teaches an intro to BASIC written for a very young reader?
It would be nice if the book is in the PD or at least available as a PDF
that way he can read it on his Kindle. However, I am not averse to buying a
physical new (or used book) either.

Thanks.

-Ali