Scratch

I've had today my first witness of a kid interacting with Scratch (or was it interacting with me through Scratch?)    It was pretty cool!

It wasn't a planned thing. My nephew of 5 years old came by the house, and I called him to show my game I developed last night (Gobo the Foracious Eater). He played it a bit, and found it hard. After diner, we went back to the laptop, and he started asking "what happens if I drop the banana in the trash box", "what happens if I drop the poo in the banana box", "Why does he like eating poo?(He doesn't, it takes a life)"... I answered how I could, that I hadn't thought of that yet, that I didn't program that, that it was a good idea. After a while, he began giving sugestions:
"Can you give more lifes, 5 is too little."
"How much more then?"
"Make it 6!No, 7!"
"Ok, 7!"
"No, 8!"
"Ok, 8!"
"Ah, 10, make it 10, it's better!"
So as he watched, I dragged and drop to add the extra hearts, copying each of their code, all the while he kept making me all kinds of questions about the game, about what I was doing, etc.(and me managing to answer, since what I was doing was pretty sistematic).

Then he asked me, what if when we pressed the right arrow key, it would turn the player, and when he turned all around, it would give him 1 heart (life). So, after having the hearts done, I began doing that. But then I found a problem, instead of giving one life, it would replenish the entire 10 hearts! He loved it! 

He was really excited, by the fact that he could ask things for the game, and have them appear after minutes.

Right at the end of his visit, when he saw his last minutes coming up, and while I was trying to still make the right arrow only give one extra life, he just began touching the touchpad, wanting to mess with Scratch. Wanted to make him move, to make something happen, so I helped him with some effects blocks (He loved the mosaic one, and asked how would they die, one at a time?), and we also made the right-arrow key move 2 steps as well, which made the player go around in a circle.

Of course, then he had to gome home with his parents, and that was the end of it.

Tomorow, I think I'll finish the game we both made, and send it to him!