..... Forgetful George was crying in the corner.

"What's wrong?" quizzed Ivy Iterator.

"It's too complicated" moaned George, he continued: "Mr Main has asked me to deliver all of these invites to the birthday party but I keep forgetting which people I've given invitations to. I gave Sam three invites and Polly hasn't got one yet, it's no use! I can't remember which invite is which!"

"Don't worry" said Ivy, "lets work together to make this more simple! I'll remember which invitation we're giving and which one is next, so all you have to do is deliver the invite!"

George beamed, "Really? You can do that for me?"

"Sure thing George! They don't call me Ivy Iterator for nothing!"

So eh.. when is your book coming out?

(that's cryptic internet speak for, man I really like what you wrote, I can totally imagine the next chapter being about George asking Ivy how she did that!)

It's like, "Design Patterns Personified!"

Sign me up to buy two copies when you do your kickstarter.

Now you've trapped yourself. You HAVE to write it.

This is excellent. You're on to something, why not write more?

>How would you explain a simple FOR loop to a child through a story?

You wouldn't.

The same way you don't explain how to take a corner kick to a child playing soccer. All you need to do is explain that they need to kick the ball into the net, and let them go.

The same way you don't teach multiplication to a child before you teach the concepts of grouping and sorting.

Everything else comes later. This is a good introduction, not something that will qualify them to work in the industry.

Actually you can get a better result by walking them through a play slowly, then faster and faster until they've got the muscle memory and speed to succeed. Combined with drills for strength/accuracy, and you can bring a kid up to speed pretty quickly.

Giving them the ball and letting them run is not coaching. It works for the 1st 5 minutes; then they'd probably like to have some success or learn something. Kids are like that.

The child needs to be at the right level to understand the concept before they can be coached to do it. The book is aimed for 6 year olds, so, I'm using that age. Teaching a corner kick to a 6 year old is a waste of time. (at least in North America) You are still teaching the basics of space, movement and ball control.

Ergo, playing a game is the best way for a 6 year old to learn. At this age, exposure is the key element.

>How would you explain a simple FOR loop to a child through a story?

It's a child. I'd hope you'd explain map instead.

You ought to read Lauren Ipsum sometime. Most of the book is taken up by story; the actual explanations of each concept takes very little space.

You wouldn't, and I don't think that's the point.