Life Hack to Reli on: new app can teach your kids to code in seconds
Kids…they know their way around your smartphone and tablet, don’t they? But now you can teach your kids to code and use their devices in a whole new way. Why not take their computer knowledge to another level; encourage them to learn coding. Coding for kids has become a popular pursuit for parents looking to give their children a jump start on a future career. It also creates a positive digital experience instead of toxic, mindless drifting through a devices apps all day. Practically every industry relies on computers and software, so our digital world is always going to need computer science knowledge and skills. As kids are spending more time at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this is probably a great opportunity to get them to try their hand at learning to code; something they can learn in seconds.
Benefits of teaching your kids to code
What is coding? At its core, coding, also known as computer programming, is creating instructions for a computer on how to perform a task using programming language. It’s often said that children can learn a second language much easier than an adult, because their brains are more open to new words, absorb them quicker, and retain them longer. Children that learn to code from a young age will also benefit in other areas such as reading, math, and spelling. Coding will also improve their problem-solving skills. Yes, the five-year-olds that learn code are also cultivating their critical thinking skills. There is very little risk for parents because there are plenty of free, online coding courses designed specifically for kids, from kindergarten to grade twelve. The courses are lively, game-oriented fun designed to engage and educate.
Code.org: Learn today, build a brighter tomorrow…and learn to code for free!
Code.org’s mission is to increase access to computer science in schools. They are a non-profit organization that has some of the biggest names in technology supporting their cause: Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Amazon are just a few of the companies and individuals contributing. As they work to increase the availability of computer science classes in every school, code.org offers fun, free, online coding courses for kids.
Code.org’s online courses are divided into grades K to five, grades six to 12, and finally beyond K to 12 which offers resources and opportunities for continuing the path in computer science. For example, let’s look at K to five, code.org’s first level of coding courses:
Ages four to seven-year-olds are taught an introduction to computer science along with an Internet safety course video titled, “Safety in my online neighbourhood,” a must-watch for kids of all ages. Computer science subjects include, “learning how to drag and drop” “sequencing,” “programming,” “loops,” and “events,” which ultimately instruct the kids how to create their own app, game, or computer drawing.
If your kids are Minecraft aficionados, code.org offers Minecraft tutorials that teach them how to build underwater worlds using code in Minecraft Voyage Aquatic, plus take a coding journey through Minecraft’s Hero’s Journey and more. They even have an offline version to download for those that don’t have Internet or have limited Internet access.
Code Academy: 47 million learners and counting.
Javascript, Python, Ruby; kids can learn these programming languages and many more in beginner-friendly courses either for free or with a paid subscription. Code Academy also features a quiz for those who do not know what their programming personality is and are “not sure where to begin.” After completing the quiz, your answers are analyzed and a suggested programming profile is created including the career opportunities and the type of computer language to learn that plays to your strengths.
The Code Academy Pro subscription app offers members-only content including exclusive courses and quizzes, plus real-world, portfolio-ready projects and plenty of community support.
For Code Academy kids, they can submit their own games that they coded to Katie, and she’ll not only play the game, she’ll also examine the code to see how the game was made. All the kids need to do is leave their game code in the comments in CodeSpark Academy app.
Once again, with many free, online courses to choose from, there is zero risk for the parents and almost unlimited coding possibilities for the kids.
Resources
Code.org
Codeacademy.com
Minecraft learning
Computer Science for the Kindergarten Set
Code Academy: let’s play with Amy
Feature Image: Photo by Robo Wunderkind on Unsplash
