XLogo: Free Computer Programming Tool for Little Kids

Saturday, May 31, 2008

XLogo is a very simple drawing program that lets young kids easily learn the concepts of computer programming. XLogo uses a subset of the LOGO programming language and only uses about 42 commands. Kids write simple programs to draw on the screen using commands like newturtle, showturtle and hideturtle. Yes, turtles are what you ‘control’ in order to draw on the screen.

XLogo is great because its interface is so simple, kids can get started in minutes. XLogo is a fun way to teach logic, creative problem solving and typing skills. If your child masters this little language, he/she can extend his/her knowledge to more robust versions.

The XLogo version we are using is only available for Mac OS X. There is an updated version that can be installed on a PC, but we have not tried it. From looking at screenshots of the PC version, it looks like the PC version is somewhat more complex but also more powerful than the simple Mac version.

If you want to give XLogo a try, here are some resources to get you started:

Mac OS X

Download XLogo 0.3.5 for Mac OS X
XLogo Educator Documentation
XLogo User Documentation (You may want to print this for quick reference)

Windows

Read ‘The Children’s Machine‘ by Seymour Papert, the person who developed Logo. Logo is intended as an interactive learning and discovery tool.

Visit the Logo Foundation website for information on other Logo products

Have Fun!

Entry Filed under: Computer Programming, Eclectic Homeschooling. Tags: Computer Programming, homeschool, XLogo.

6 Comments Add your own

1. Al Sweigart | Monday, September 1, 2008 at 2:36 am

I would like to mention a free ebook called “Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python” The book teaches computer programming to kids in the Python language. Python has a gentle learning curve while still being sophisticated enough that it is used in professional software development.

The book provides complete source code for games like Tic Tac Toe, Othello, and Encryption and then teaches programming concepts from the examples.

The book is free under a Creative Commons license. The website is:
http://pythonbook.coffeeghost.net
2. ginac | Monday, September 1, 2008 at 7:11 am

Thanks, Al for sharing this book.
3. Aaron Tyo-Dickerson | Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at 4:35 pm

I use XLogo at my school and have found it to be a great introduction to simple programming.

Another tool that you may want to consider is Scratch from the folks at MIT’s Media Lab. It is free and runs on Windows and Apple computers…and there is a great support website for sharing your projects, too!
4. ginac | Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at 7:44 pm

Aaron,

Thanks for the Scratch website. It looks like fun!
5. Sheryl | Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 10:34 am

I downloaded the jre file. But then when I went online to use the program, I didn’t choose a flag. I just said Ok. Now I have the program in French every time I try to open it.
Please help!
Sheryl
6. ginac | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 4:50 am

Sheryl. I e-mailed you off-line on some tips for fixing your problem. Please let me know if this information helps. If so, I will post the information for anyone else who may have had the same problem. Thanks

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