No doubt coding will continue to be a skillset that is highly in demand as the years progress. Everything and everyone is online now: Stores/shopping, finances, our money(crypto-currency), and schools just to name a few.
And if you have been on sites such as YouTube, I’m pretty sure you have come across at least one ad about a coding bootcamp that teaches you to code in 3–5 months. If not, trust me, you will after reading this. Lol
So, what about kids and teens? Should they learn it at their age? Would they even be able to comprehend? Could their time be better spent doing other activities?
While I’m not a parent, and can’t answer these questions from a parents’ perspective; I can tell you that being a coding instructor who teaches elementary to high school kids to code…. It’s worth it and the time for them to learn is now!
To keep this article unbiased, I won’t reveal who I work for but I can tell you that there are many companies out here that are geared towards teaching your kid how to code.
It’s such an amazing a rewards feeling to take the knowledge that I didn’t acquire until I was in my late 20’s and teach it to the next generation. I always think, if I had learned how to program and code when I was their age, I could have been a female version of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Zuckerberg rolled into one!
The saying is that “kids are like sponges”, and I have found that to be true even with programming. Most of the kids I teach are able to pick up some of the basic fundamentals of coding in as little as 3 months. Of, course I don’t expect them to go and land a job as a computer programmer after that but they are well on their way to it.
Some of kids take ahold of what they learned and go on to build amazing projects in within our courses. I’m always floored in at least one of my many classes by a student who has taken the material and excelled! Some of these students I know will go on to do greater things and be game changers in the world and it will be because they learned to code.
In this article, I want to share some hand-selected resources that you can use to introduce your child to coding. Some of them will be free and others will be paid.
- )Scratch.com
- Swift Playgrounds** (This is free but is does require an ipad using the latest IOS version)
- freecodecamp.com
- codeavengers.com
- create&learn
- codewizardshq.com
- codingwithkids.com
- codemoji.com
- code.org/learn
- code-monster
- code-maven
- mBlock
This is NOT an exhaustive list. There are many resources out there but this is a start to get the ball rolling.😎
- *Now there is a caveat, just like any subject, hobby ,or career choice, coding is not for every student. So if you do find that coding is not for your kid, its okay. Another thing to remember that coding is a skill! So just because your kid may not get it right away doesn’t mean they won’t. It takes time for some to learn it(I’m in that boat lol) while other just naturally grasp the concepts.
I hope that this article was helpful. Even if you don’t have kids, feel free to share this people who do!Be on the look out for more blogs/vlogs next week. Until then….Happy coding Ya’ll 😜!
