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I do not think your professional experience is representative in any way of what is better for very young kids.

I know some musicians and I can tell that actually playing the instrument is not the hardest part. That does not mean a toy piano is not a good present to get a 5 years old started. And if painting the keys in colors instead of black and white (icons instead of text) makes the kids more willing to play it, I think it is something very interesting (more for toy piano manufacturers than musicians though).



Absolutely. "Programming" with cute icons may not make you a "great" programmer, but that's not the goal. It's to get you interested in the idea of telling a computer to do cool things.

As an example, my daughter had no real interest in doing anything with a computer until we showed her she could move Moana's raft around with some Scratch/Blockly code in a Disney Hour of Code game. Therefore, I think these games are absolutely worthwhile. Let kids start learning the "hard parts" of programming after we've got them hooked!


Maybe playing the instrument isn't actually the hardest part for a pianist, but for us string players... ;)




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