It has been interesting trying to foster a budding techie geek when I’m not really one myself. I’m not a computer ignoramus, mind you. I worked in the computer lab in college fixing routine problems and have picked up a lot of basic stuff. On the other hand, I’m not equipped to teach anyone what’s what, especially not for things like robotics or coding.
To some extent, I’ve just had to learn but I can’t say I’ve learned much. Mostly I’ve learned what to suggest that the kids themselves look into. This has been one of those beautiful things about being the parent of older kids. They sometimes know more about something than you! It’s so cool to see Mushroom excited about this stuff, talking a mile a minute about things I barely understand.
Since I’m so little use, luckily there are books and kits and so forth. Mushroom has taken to lugging some of them around sometimes, even hugging them and sticking them under his pillow. His joy when Make comes in the mail is off the charts. While a large part of his hobby is looking at projects, dreaming about the possibilities, and reading about how things are done, sometimes he also does things himself. He has gone through a lot of the most basic projects with his Raspberry Pi and Arduino. He did a project from Make turning his Pi into an old fashioned arcade games player and we downloaded lots of old games to play. He has gotten a really cool Brick Pi from Dexter Industries and begun to build little robots combining his old Mindstorms pieces with the Raspberry Pi. Overall, he’s slowly tinkering and learning, dreaming and imagining.
Super Scratch Programming Adventure by The Lead Project
This one is a bit of cheat. We had the older version of this book from back when Scratch was downloadable instead of all online. However, it was the very first programming book we ever got and it got a fair amount of use from both Mushroom and BalletBoy, who was obsessed with Scratch for awhile. The book uses a comic book format, which is obviously a good hook for kids. The projects are simple and it makes for a great jump start into Scratch. Really, Scratch is simple enough that all kids need to do is dive in and look at other kids’ projects, but sometimes some more traditional instructions are good encouragement.
Make Magazine
This is really the gold standard in the maker movement. It’s more than just the sort of programming and electronics and computer projects that Mushroom is into right now and even when it has those, they’re often at another level of amazing. My mother saw Mushroom’s magazine and asked him could he make her the crazy backyard fountain project that was in there. Mushroom paid for his own subscription to Make and reads it very carefully, cover to cover every time it arrives.
Magpi Magazine
This is a pretty hefty subscription cost because this magazine, the official one for the Raspberry Pi, is British. You can find individual issues at some bookstores, but the best way to read it is online where you can get at least some issues for free. Mushroom really loves this magazine almost as much as he loves Make. It’s shiny and inviting and I know he wishes he could buy the paper version instead of reading on the iPad. As you might expect, all the projects and articles in here are for the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi is a tiny computer you can get for about $30. It’s made to be hacked and built into different projects and comes with software you can easily load on such as the kids programming language Scratch and a version of Minecraft that’s just for the Pi.
Adventures in Raspberry Pi by Carrie Anne Philbin
Mushroom says that this book is the best you can get for the beginner interested in doing projects with the Raspberry Pi. He did several of the beginning projects in the book before deciding that he was ready to try other things with his Pi. Mostly the projects seem to just introduce kids to different ways to use the Pi with languages like Scratch and Python and simple projects like making music on the Pi and turning it into a little jukebox.
Python for Kids by Jason R. Briggs
Okay, now we’ve gotten the books that I know less about. Mushroom kept thumbing through this one over and over though I think most of the Python he has learned has actually been through Code Academy, a free online tutorial for beginning coders in different languages, as well as by simply doing projects he reads about in other sources. Python is an older programming language, but my understanding from Mushroom is that because it’s so basic it’s used as one of the main ways to program the Pi and Arduino.
Arduino Workshop by John Boxall
Make: Basic Arduino Projects by Don Wilcher
Now we come to the Arduino books. Mushroom has both of these and has worked through a few projects from each, though his Arduino kit also came with a book of initial projects that he did most of. Arduino is a type of little controller that you can program to do all kinds of things. Through Arduino, Mushroom has gotten into breadboards and wiring things up. All of his first projects just involved getting various LED lights on a breadboard to come on and off in various ways and patterns. However, he has since played around with an Arduino Esplora, which he has used as a game controller and programmed to use a tiny screen.
I Capture the Rowhouse 
Oh Arduino, this is the second time in as many days that this has come up for me. I had never heard of it until yesterday. I’m much the same as you when it comes to these things so I’ll be adding the book you mentioned to my list to check out more closely.