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Hello Ruby: Adventures in Coding is a book about an imaginative six year old girl named Ruby. She believes that anything is possible and is determined to solve any problem that comes her way! Ruby’s first adventure comes her way when her dad hides five gems for her to find. However, her dad does not leave any instructions and so Ruby must come up with her own plan. She decides to take her big problem and break it into smaller problems. This is called computational thinking, which is thinking about a problem in a way that allows a computer to solve the problem. Computational thinking includes four different aspects. These are decomposition, abstraction, pattern recognition, and algorithms. The Hello Ruby book will help teach these core concepts of computational thinking to your child through a series of exercises and activities that encourage exploration and creativity.

Now we’ll look at each computational thinking concept in detail. I will also share a few extension activities that you can do with your child after reading the book.

Decomposition

One part of computational thinking is decomposition. Decomposition is when we take apart a problem into smaller pieces. Programmers even break their code into smaller pieces. We can use decomposition to break down a food recipe into smaller steps. This will make it easier for someone else to understand the recipe.

The Hello Ruby book offers an activity to help you practice decomposition with your child. This is exercise two and it can be found on page 72. In this activity, you will take a drawing and break it down into smaller pieces. For example, I can take a drawing of a ladybug and break it down into smaller pieces. The pieces would be a red oval, a black line, six black circles, a black half circle, two black squiggly lines, and six black rectangles.

Now you and your child can practice the concept of abstraction by taking a drawing and breaking it down in smaller pieces. You could also practice this using a kids step by step drawing book. Here are a few suggestions that you can purchase on Amazon

Abstraction

Another part of computational thinking is abstraction. Abstraction is the process of taking out details that do not matter that much and focusing on the details that do matter. A map of your town is an abstraction of the real town that you live in. Programming languages are abstractions too.

You can find an exercise to practice abstraction on page 101 in the Hello Ruby book. In this activity, you and your child must describe Ruby and her friends. Remember to practice abstraction, you need to leave out unnecessary details and focus on important details. This is a great challenge that will help your child use their imagination!

Another way to practice abstraction would be to ask your child to describe a few of their favorite items using only important details. They will describe the item in four different ways.

1) What the item is. 2) What the item has. 3) What the item can do. 4) What the item eats.

Afterward, you could play a guessing game with your child. Ask them to say the important details as clues and then you can guess their favorite item. For example, I chose a dog as my favorite item. Here are my clues.

1) My item is a type of animal. 2) My item has fur. 3) My item can be a type of pet. 4) My item eats kibble.

The favorites guessing game is a great way to practice abstraction with your child. It would be a fun activity to do in the car on a road trip or around the dinner table.

Pattern Recognition

One important part of computational thinking is to be able to recognize patterns. Pattern recognition is when we find things that are similar in a group of objects. When we look for similarities and patterns, it helps us solve more complex problems with ease.

The Hello Ruby book offers two different pattern recognition activities that you can complete with your child. The first activity is exercise three that is on page 73 in the Hello Ruby book. In this activity, you and your child will need to help Ruby select an outfit to wear. However, she has a specific set of rules. You will need to read over the rules and find the outfit that matches her set of rules. Your child can also write their own rules for Ruby, and you can print out your own Ruby paper dolls on the Hello Ruby websites.

The second activity is exercise eleven that is on page 87 in the Hello Ruby book. In this activity, Snow Leopard is decorating her house and she needs help completing the pattern on her wallpaper. This activity also introduces loops, which is the process of repeating a task over and over again. You and your child can work together to complete the patterns for Snow Leopard’s wallpaper. Another great way to practice patterns is to create a loop of hand movements. Here are two examples that you can use with your child. You can also create your own with your child to help them practice loops and patterns.

Algorithms

Lastly, algorithms are an important part of computational thinking. Algorithms are when we find the step-by-step solution to a problem. Ruby used an algorithm when she was on her adventure to find all the gems. It broke down the process into smaller steps that were more manageable. Algorithms are also used in programming.

The Hello Ruby book offers two activities to practice algorithms. The first activity is exercise seven that can be found on page 79. In this activity, you and your child will need to match a rule to Ruby’s pattern. Then, your child can draw their own pattern that matches the same rule. An example of this would be draw a pattern that uses curved lines that do not touch. Here are four more examples that you can use with your child.

The second activity is exercise eight that can be found on page 80 and 81. In this activity, you and your child will need to help Ruby get to her friends. Ruby can only move by using a set of five directions. These directions are go right, go left, go down, go up, and stop and say hello. Your child will need to write a sequence of directions for Ruby to follow. After they write a sequence of directions for Ruby, they can write their own set of directions. You can encourage your child to place a toy in a specific part of your house and then ask them to write directions to find that toy. Lastly, see if you can follow the directions to find the toy that your child hid in your house.

Conclusion

Computational Thinking is a great way to practice problem solving to help your child think like a Computer Scientist. The Hello Ruby book by Linda Liukas is full of many fun and engaging activities that will help your child use their creativity and imagination. I would recommend this book as a great way to practice programming concepts with your child.