We now live in a modern world where everything is about digital technology. Mobile phones, tablets, computers, laptops, smart TVs, and the likes are all around us. These gadgets and appliances do not communicate like humans do and would need coding to work, as codes are humans’ translators so that commands can be understood and executed by these machines.
However, users of these technologies are no longer dominated by adults and professionals and a big chunk of consumers are kids, whether we like it or not. Hence, it is important to have them learn coding as early as now, which they can later explore in more in-depth when they grow up. What’s more is that these are accessible anywhere in the world, so it doesn’t matter if you are within or outside Australia.
Coding Courses and Platforms for Kids
Did you know that a lot of the brilliant coding resources online nowadays are aimed at kids? And since they are so, they are specially made to be fun, interactive, and flexible which can convert your child’s screen time into some more worthwhile and beneficial stuff. Below are some of the available choices.
Blockly
This platform is actually a series of educational games that teach young learners programming. While it is not mentioned what age group it targets to educate, the format is designed for kids with no prior knowledge of programming.
Think of it as a jigsaw puzzle with pieces made of blocks of code where students will have to drag and drop them into their proper place. As they go through each part, they learn the principles and rationale of coding along the way.
Blockly is inspired by JavaScript and lacks the text-based type of programming. So, it is really very suitable for young learners as a starting point. However, the end goal is for children to be well-versed in text-based computer languages.
“My daughter started playing around with Blockly because she thought it was a fun game, but she quickly became enthralled with the challenge of making a computer do what she wanted. The great thing is that Blockly allowed her to level up to doing interesting coding at a young age, before she could even read!”, says David, owner of Caloundra Pressure Washing.
CodeMonkey
CodeMonkey is one of the leading coding curricula for kids with over 32 million users. It is a fun and intuitive way to learn coding for ages 5 to 14 years old. This is the perfect way to start kids with the lessons as everything will be taught from scratch.
The courses will start with block-based code which is considered the most basic, and then work their way up to the real programming languages such as Python and CoffeeScript. What’s good with all of these is that they are all self-paced, so there’s no need for learners to feel pressured when falling behind the lessons.
How CodeMonkey works is it uses interactive and engaging stories that make the kids learn without actually knowing it as all the kids may know is that they are just playing. For example, they are instructed to write code to make the monkey collect bananas as it saves the world.
CodeWizardsHQ
CodeWizardsHQ promises to deliver the most fun, interactive, and effective online coding via live classes for kids 8 to 18 years old. This means that it has real-life coding instructors, much like an online class with real teachers and not just videos and instructions.
This required learners to attend an hour-long class through a video link. This is ideal if the parents don’t want their kids slacking off, which can often be the case when you are allowed to learn at your own pace.
The good news is that, if the students fail to attend any of the classes, they are all recorded so the students can access them afterward. CodeWizardsHQ also provides access to different coding resources outside of the actual lecture and can even allow them to contact the teachers during urgent cases via the secure messaging system.
Khan Academy
Unlike most of the resources that usually just focus on coding, computing, and programming, Khan Academy also offers various subjects like Biology, Math, History, and Grammar, among others. It is a non-profit organisation that aims to provide a free, world-class education.
However, their lessons are more appropriate for much older students, 14 to 18 years old to be specific as their material is more technical which may not be appealing to younger learners. Also, these free coding classes are ideal for students who have already mastered the basics such as the one used in Scratch.
Khan Academy features an interactive video called “talk-throughs” that learners can watch at their own pace where codes play on screen and pause whenever they want. It also offers a personalised learning dashboard and practice exercises for students to enjoy. The lessons can even extend to touching some of the real programming languages such as SQL, JavaScript, and HTML/CSS. However, these just serve as guidance and probably an introduction and not a full-on lecture.
S2JS
Where to take kids after learning Scratch? This seems to be a common question most parents ask themselves when they want their child to continue their promising coding journey. For older kids, particularly those between 12 and 17 years old and who have already finished learning Scratch, S2JS is one great way to transition to JavaScript.
It teaches students how to create JavaScript things by comparing it directly to what Scratch can produce. It literally uses examples from Scratch which are presented in blocks, then leads you to the step-by-step of how to get the same results in JavaScript. You might also be interested to know that it is Australian-made.