Why I develop graphics that can be used in Scratch.

Years ago I travelled the world as a Software Engineer. For many the exciting aspect of that phrase would be the idea of visiting beautiful cities in Europe, visiting Australia repeatedly and traveling around America. For me however my passion truly lay in the coding and problem solving. I actually happened on programming and the fact that I had a brain for logic after completing a Theology degree. A training course was offered after an IQ test. I was the only girl on the course. I think I surprised my family as I was a day dreaming novel reader, perhaps the term woolly headed and flibberty jibbet may even have been applied. But then that's family for you!
For me I would love to know that every child has the opportunity to learn programming in schools. There are cost effective ways that children of all ages can be introduced. Some of the articles below work through many of the, I have over the last 2 years worked with my own daughter in a couple of environments - Kodu so far has been her favourite and was particularly useful as she really struggles in her reading. The commands are developed with images but the overall environment is good looking and fun.
My daughter was quite delighted on the occasions when she solved problems in the coding, she displayed a natural talent and it has given me great joy to watch her work. This half term I will be working alongside her in Scratch to see how she gets on there. She is excited to know she can use the graphics from Project Isabella and I am looking forward to the holidays.
I would love to encourage children, parents and teachers to give at least one of the methods for introducing programming for children a go and if developing pretty graphics that support systems such as Scratch helps, then that would make my me so happy!
So that's why the SVG graphics at Project Isabella contain a snippet like this.

Use our graphics with Scratch

Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. It is available for free at      http://scratch.mit.edu Scratch enables young students to program their own interactive games, stories and puzzles. As Scratch is a graphical programming language these our SVG multi pose vector clip art developed at Project Isabella Graphic Workshop is ideal to use within the Scratch system. Contact us to see how you could get these graphics in bulk and very affordable to use in your school or programming club.

20 Resources for Teaching Kids How to Program & Code ...
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com Thu, 20 Feb 2014 14:30:00 GMT
Isn't it amazing to see a baby or a toddler handle a tablet or a smart phone? They know how technology works. Kids absorb information so fast, languages (spoken or coded) can be learned in a matter of months. Recently ...
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All God's Children Gotta Learn to Program! -- THE Journal
http://thejournal.com Tue, 13 May 2014 12:49:00 GMT
In 1967, Seymour Papert and colleagues invented Logo, a programming language designed expressly for kids and intended not to teach programming per se, but to teach 'powerful ideas' in mathematics, e.g., iteration and ...
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Here's how you can help teach kids programming - Pluralsight blog
http://blog.pluralsight.com Tue, 06 May 2014 16:44:19 GMT
Top reasons why kids need to learn computer programming.
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Women in Tech: Coding and Teaching Kids to Code - Developer ...
https://developer.salesforce.com Thu, 15 May 2014 16:55:51 GMT
I really like teaching, and whenever there's an opportunity for me to talk about what I do or to teach kids to code, I take it. I want kids to feel like I did when I was little: “Oh yeah, obviously programming is the best job!” I love the ...
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