<p>Son had his last final yesterday so my wife cleaned his apartment and we loaded up his stuff and brought it home. Last night he asked me for an algorithms book. I told him that he knew where they were and suggested Brassard (WPI textbook). He said that he couldn’t find it so I went and showed him where it was. Then I suggested that he read Cormen (MIT) as he read Brassard a few years ago. Brassard is a practical book whereas Cormen is more of a theory book. So he took it. He came down later to show me something in the book with a lot of excitement so he’s clearly into it.</p>
<p>I’m just a bit surprised that he’s already preparing for the Fall. He normally does this but he usually takes a little time off first. I need to order a few books so that he can prepare for his other technical courses and a few other areas that I think that he would be interested in. What would be nice is if the stuff that I buy is what his course will use but I won’t have the course information until around July or August.</p>
<p>Any other kids getting a jump on the Fall semester?</p>
<p>No, but that’s because school runs for another few weeks.</p>
<p>BCEagle, if you have recommendations for prestudy for one’s first CS class, I’d love to see them. I have an old Boolean Logic handout from my HS days that I intend to give DD, but am open to suggestions!</p>
<p>S1 read a ton last summer - foreign policy stuff that he wanted to read but didn’t have time to during the school year. He actually likes it, though i don’t think it did much to prepare him for the next year’s classes.</p>
<p>This summer he has an ‘off-site’ research internship with a Washington think tank before heading off for rotc training next month. At first he was bummed at the idea of not being IN D.C., but considering it’s an unpaid internship the savings on rent is a lifesaver. The main problem now is that he’s no longer at school, in his single, with access to a million-plus-volume library. He’s in a house with parents and three younger siblings, three dogs, and pretty much constant distractions. Our local library is tiny, but he’s realized that bringing his laptop down there is still better than sitting at the computer here in the kitchen, vying for screen time with everybody else.</p>
<p>Harvard College CS50 Introduction to Computer Science I
[Harvard</a> College’s Computer Science 50: Introduction to Computer Science I](<a href=“http://cs50.tv/]Harvard”>http://cs50.tv/)</p>
<p>If your daughter doesn’t have any programming experience, then I’d suggest finding a book or website with problems and then working through them. There are students that go into programming classes with no experience at all but it’s usually a little more stressful than if you’ve had some experience.</p>
<p>You can download free development environments from the web and use them to program on your own. That’s frequently a good challenge - to get an integrated development environment up and running without any help. Most programming textbooks have programming problems.</p>
<p>S is doing the MIT open course ware for organic chemistry. He will take the course in the fall at his LAC and has heard that it is really tough and that getting a jump on it can help. We bought him the book on Amazon and are hoping that his class will use it. But even if not we got it cheap.</p>
<p>I totally get cleaning the apartment. Every time I visit my D I end up folding her laundry etc. I feel like a slob enabler, but in my role as OCD Mom it makes me feel better. Fortunately for both of us she’s on the other side of the country so I don’t get there very often.</p>