More useful IMO is counting in base 6 and treating each hand as a single digit. i.e counting to 35 on 2 hands without awkward fingerings. Better than 10, less awkward than binary.

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

We're about to start learning how to program, probably with Python, so it could be a good way to start thinking about how computers work. I never would have thought to try other systems though, so I'll look into base 6. Thanks for the suggestion :)

without awkward fingerings

Oh, the fun I would have had with that phrasing if we weren't talking about teaching kids... :D

[–] Lodra@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

It does take s little practice but not too much. The awkward positions are easy enough after a few weeks.

I chose binary for two reasons. First, it is occasionally useful to count that high on one hand. Second, the education when he's older. I hope this will give him a note intuitive understanding of different bases. And binary is specifically useful for understanding comported and software development. I dont intend to push him toward a career in software but I think there's a fair chance he chooses that anyways.

Plus we've made it into something fun 🙂