Programming for Kids : Where to Start Learning? Course? Youtube?
If you reach this article, maybe you are a parent which has lovely kids (maybe elementary school) or energetic teenagee, which attached to games, or gadgets, or phones. Then you heard the idea : “Let them kids learning to write coding, so they create their own games”.
It’s not wrong, but you think : Is it worth the price? Somebody maybe offer like $10 / hour for private coding course, but is 2–3 hours enough? Or maybe parents should just buy kindle books : “Programming for kids”? But coding is not for everyone (it’s just like math: some people just know how to arrange numbers, some people read and write coding easily, but not everybody does).
There are several resources that can be used for start learning. Some are free, but not structured well. Some needs monthly payment, which is quite nice. Some is just one-time-payment, and not expensive. Here are the resources that can be used for kids (and beginners) to start learning, including whether they are free, or pay.
Hour of code compilation
Cost : Free
Pro : Contains a lot of coding tutorial that (should be) finished in around one hour each. Mostly contains links to other websites, which is freemium (free one hour, then you need to pay). But if you just want to start, this is a good resource. Some kids might loves coding, playing with their keyboard and solving problem, but some other kids might hate it. Why spend money for trying? This website provides free one hour that you can use.
Cons : The coding is mostly trial for marketing purpose, no support (means you cannot ask if the kids confused), and there are no structured curriculum, so the kid might be assumed as not-so-beginner, while actually this is the first time they write code. Good for trial and testing whether the kid likes coding, but not really good for further learning.
Where : here
One-Time Payment Online Course
Cost : Vary, usually around USD 8–15, one time payment
Pro : Provides FAQ support, one time payment can be used forever (no time limit), free updates, kids can learn at their own pace. This is a good learning resources, as online course is structured in such manner, so that kids start learning from beginning, and eventually goes to more challenging coding lesson. Just like learning A-B-C, then learn word, then sentence, but for coding. Sometimes the teacher that sells the course are professional coders, so they really life from coding and sell the knowledge, hence this contains good learning path.
Cons : There are so many online courses, so which one to use? Is the long-hour course good? Sometimes long-hour courses contains repetitive lesson, so it’s not always good. With so many choices, which course should you buy?
Where : Well, this article contains several courses that has good rating, and suitable for kids (and adult beginner) to start learning coding, also the brief summary of what kind programming the course provides.
Programming for Kids & Beginners : Learn to Code In Scratch
In this course, kids will learn to code, starting from the basic blocks. Scratch, the programming language used is so fun that it makes programming seem like a game. Or literally, kids will write a game using Scratch coding. Kids will learn by doing. The course is designed so that kids create the games and applications with their own two hands. Kids will learn a variety of computer science topics, but the course hide the complexity behind characters, animations, analogies and fun! Kids learn to create animations and cool effects and will create clones of some of the most popular games, such as Flappy Bird or Pac-Man. The games are handpicked to optimize learning computer science topics while having fun along the way. With more than 31.000 purchases, this course is very popular selling. Suitable for kids in elementary school.
Teach coding to Kids : Scratch, Python, Html, Css, Robotics
This course is divided in 2Parts: Block Based Programming (6 sections) and Text Based Programming (3 sections). The course has more than 17 hours of structured tutorial. It has various basic items to learn, suitable for kids and teenagers.
On block based programming, kids will learn concepts of programming with easy drag & drop software. Here are the 6 sections covered on block-based programming:
1. Learning basics of Programming by generation of Visual Designs
2. Application of programming
3. SCRATCH Programming & Gaming
4. Developing games with a Professional Game Engine — CONSTRUCT 3
5. Web Design with WORDPRESS
6. ROBOTICS with Arduino — (no hardware required)
Here are the 3 sections covered on text-based programming:
1. Moving from Scratch to Python — TURTLE programming
2. PYTHON Programming
3. HTML & CSS Programming