This year I was interested to see that they did the Hour of Code in the elementary school my daughter attends. Seems like it is catching on. Both of my children did the Minecraft exercise to completion and were pleased to be able to print out the certificate at the end. I like the concept, but it felt like they saw it as a puzzle/game and weren’t linking it to doing tasks in the real world. I wonder if something like If This Then That might be a better path to getting them to make that leap.
SQLAndy 
Having it be a puzzle is a great starting place. It’s something to get them excited about problem solving and to exercise the analytical part of their brain. To get involved in programming they’ll need to move past that at some point but that will happen in time. Both my kids are younger and I haven’t worked with elementary age kids so I can’t say when it’s best to push them towards more practical things.
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What they have is perfect for the first hour of code. We just need to suggest to them the second hour of code.
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Steve, that sounds right. I’ll watch with interest to see how it evolves. I’m definitely looking for an opportunity to engage my kids more/again on this topic.
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