I can definitely identify with your child. I'm 30 now, and have done work in computer engineering, computer science, software engineering and theoretical physics. These days it's neuroanatomy and psychology.
The most supreme advice I can offer is
1) Mentors: take the child to see engineering/computer science/math/physics professors at the community college because community college professors on average do it because they love the subject.
2) Funding: start a project funding budget if you can. Some of the things that will be needed later will be expensive. It'll be a few years before he can work.
3) Portfolio: have the child complete projects and collect them somehow. Save the software in a gmail account or something "permanent" (email yourself etc). This will be his saving grace.
The most important thing is to allow the talents to grow organically while driving home the basics of finishing what was started. I already see similarities between your child's mind, my own and Einstein's mind: we think in abstract patterns. Temple Grandin calls it the math/music mind. (Einstein: physics and violin, myself: computers and cello). Einstein's mother didn't really mind what einstein did but she was really strict in that he always finish what he started. And to his last breath, Einstein kept working to answer questions he had since childhood.
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Python is in the realm of software and the arudino/nerdkit are in the realm of hardware. While these two are coming closer together, they are 2 different disciplines. I don't know anything about your child but there can be a link between hardware and software.
Python is a great place to start. I would suggest that he move to Linux on a hobby computer that nobody would care about it being destroyed. Linux is free and the mountains of software for it are also all free. Good for the budget and currently a skill that is in demand. Moving towards C/C++ would be an excellent move.
The arudino could be very daunting to a child, but one never knows. The nerdkit is more supportive for education. If your child is aggressive in learning and can handle frustrations well, then give him the arudino and let him have at it. He'll probably blow up the first 50 chips, but he'll learn. If that becomes too costly, then start with nerdkit, then 'upgrade' to an arudino or something similar.
In a few years (or perhaps a few months) he should be able to program something on his Linux box in C/C++ and have it communicate with his nerdkit/arudino project (via serial or USB port). I'm not going to tell you how difficult it is because not* knowing the odds are in your favor here. As a child, I absolutely hated people telling me the odds of completing some impossible ambitious project. This project is computer controlled robotics. Animatronics for the movie industry might be something your child be interested in. It's great merger of disciplines and lots of fun too. The leading country for advanced robotics is japan. Check out Honda's Asimo robot and see what happens.
Of course, this is just one of the many paths in the science, but this is a lot of fun.
If he understands math, MIT has their open courseware, almost all their classes, lecture notes, syllabus online for free. From anthropology to computers/electronics to theoretical physics. It's great. Others for theoretical stuff are the main wiki site, wolfram research, hyper-physics and all the wonderful documentaries about cosmology, physics and math. If you don't know, check out ted.com. The best minds today, talking about important stuff.
This is basically my brain dump without writing a novel (which I tend to do). Let me know what you think. If you can tell me what your child has done in the past or found fascinating/interesting, I can share more.
27 Sep 2009, 3:04 pm
