Coding for kids is the talk of the town at present time, as its popularity is growing rapidly. Most of the parents now became aware about the value and potentiality of coding. As a result, they are willing to teach coding to their kids by hook or by crook. If you are among them or still thinking what this coding for kids is then this article is just for you.
It is immensely beneficial to teach coding to kids from a young age, as it brings a bunch of positive results in your kid’s academic life along with the thinking process.
Coding helps your kids to learn how the computer works, to think logically and creatively, to apply math in real world scenarios, to become a problem solver.
Bill Gates the owner of Microsoft Company started to learn coding at his young age, Mark Zuckerberg the owner of Facebook started coding at his young age, there are many more examples where today’s start in coding started their journey of coding at their young age.
Do you know you are using coding for almost every day of today’s life even without your knowledge, example, as soon as you start using your smartphone, what are you using, you are using nothing but a bunch of code.
At present era, if you look around, you will find coding has made its room in almost every modern industry. From the apps in your mobile to launching satellites everywhere you can find the presence of coding.
Schools are adopting teaching coding, even many countries made it compulsory to teach coding to their kids in the school as it became a part of class syllabus. Almost every country is now at work to impart computer programming as an essential part of their education.
Without doubt there are immense opportunities in computer programming or coding. Pick any in demand technical field, like, software engineering, machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, Data science etc all are based on coding.
Specially the field of Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence is creating a special room in the modern world of technology.
In order to prepare your child for the digital age, you must teach computer programming to your child.
Let your younger kids start the journey of coding by learning the concepts of coding in fun and game through Scratch.
Older kids can start coding with either html and CSS or Python.
Introduction
Your kids don’t need expensive classes for learning coding
Get rid of the idea that spending more money will teach better coding to kids
There are free and affordable ways to teach coding to kids
Free and Cheap Online Coding Classes for your Kids
Free online coding classes for your children
Cheap online coding classes for your children
FAQ on Online coding classes for kids
Tips to know before you get your kid started coding!
Essential guide for parents for better experience in coding for kids
- Your kids don’t need expensive classes for learning coding
It is a total myth that you need expensive coding classes for teaching coding to your kids. I know many parents are paying for expensive coding classes, it is fine if you can make an effort, but if you can’t make an effort then no worry, there are amazing free and cheapest ways to teach coding to your child.
So, never get discouraged by high fees rather go for a substitute way.
- Get rid of the idea that spending more money will teach better coding to kids
I believe that 1:1 coding class is helpful but it is a lie that spending more money will teach better coding to your child.
The most money you need to spend only on having a computer. Still you don’t require a very expensive one. An average computer system is just enough. The next expense is having internet connection. After this your kids can start learning to code even without spending any money or by spending very low prices for a good online coding course.
- There are free and affordable ways to teach coding to kids
There are plenty of examples of children learning coding even without paying any fees. But limitation is that most of the free resources will not provide you with any certificate.
If you focus on learning, then the certificate does not matter. There are plenty of quality free resources available for learning coding. But for learning at an advanced level, you need to go for paid courses.
There are also many affordable ways to learn coding; the best cheapest way is, online courses provided in online learning platforms. You will receive support from the instructor and community and at the end of completion certification.
- Free and Cheap Online Coding Classes for your Kids
There is a real scam going on regarding teaching coding to your kids. Let me explain what I mean by that.
I was searching for coding classes for kids online, intentionally to check what I will find, just being curious. And found that some forum sites were almost filled with garbage and scam. They are pretending to help you at the beginning but as you continue to read, you will certainly find they are directing you towards very expensive coding classes that every parent cannot effort.
When I saw how parents are being misled I thought I need to do something for the parents who cannot effort those classes.
Obviously, I will not be able to teach every kid for free but I can surely guide them honestly towards the direction of free or cheap ways of learning coding.
- Free online coding classes for your children
I created this website to provide honest information about the best and free coding classes for your kids, that’s why you will find many articles, where I shared about free coding classes for kids.
Without doubt YouTube is an amazing platform where you can access many great coding tutorials for absolutely free. There are some really with great quality. So, you must explore this platform.
There are also some really generous online platforms that provide free coding courses without charging you even a single penny.
Among them the best is Udemy.com, this is my favourite because they are really generous and packed with high quality courses. Udemy provides free and paid both courses.
Khan academy is also a free online learning platform, but it is not so amazing like udemy, but you should explore it, as all the courses here are completely free.
You can also take advantage of free trial in LinkedIn learning, skillshare etc. as they provide 1-3 months of long free trial period. Which can be great for learning for free during that time.
I would highly recommend you to read my two other articles that gave detail information.
How can kids learn coding for free? : Exposing the tips people hide from you.
Free Coding Classes websites for Kids (Genuine Guide)
- Cheap online coding classes for your children
According to my experience udemy.com is one of the best and cheapest platforms to learn coding from industry expert instructors.
The courses provided by udemy are very much affordable.
The paid courses in udemy comes with bundle of extra benefits, such as you get support from instructor, there is a community to help you out in your problem, you get lifetime access facility to every courses, you get all the updates with the course for free, instructor provides needed resources to you, you get a lot of practical assignments, at the end you get a printable and shareable certificate of accomplishment.
Here are some of the top coding courses from udemy for teaching coding to your kids.
- Programming for Kids and Beginners: Learn to Code in Scratch
- Teach Your Kids to Code: Learn Python Programming at Any Age
- Kids Coding – Introduction to HTML, CSS and JavaScript!
- Coding for Kids and Parents: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript ES6
- Programming for Kids and Beginners: Learn to Code in Scratch
Requirements
You are required to have a computer with internet connection and will to learn with fun. You are not required to have any prior knowledge of programming, instructors will start to teach with a beginner approach.
What your kids will learn
As coding is one of the most important skills to learn, your kids will learn to code with fun and games. They will learn to create animations and amazing visual effects. Your kids will understand complex computer science concepts through applying them in games. Learning coding in this software Scratch they will be able to learn the text-based real programming languages faster.
Description
Scratch programming is full of fun if it is taught in the right manner. It is a block-based programming platform, where your kids learn to code by dragging and dropping the code elements and create awesome pieces using their creativity.
The instructor of this course has started to teach from the basics so that a person without any prior programming knowledge will also learn with the most effectiveness.
This course is designed for the children to learn coding from the first step. So, if your child is first in programming, then this course is just for your child.
The instructor has also poured out all his practical experience of teaching coding to kids for a long almost 4 years. The best and most effective ways are imparted in this course to make the course most useful for the children.
The course is packed with fun and games with coding, so that your child doesn’t feel bored or lose interest in learning programming. The instructor and the enrolled students both agree with one thing that children will enjoy the course from beginning to end.
The course is updated frequently with the new better materials, you will be able to enjoy all the updates for free of cost.
You get a bunch of extra benefits along with this course, such as…
You get lifetime access to this course.
All the updates will be available to you for free of cost.
Your child can ask questions to the instructor or get answers as help from other learners as there is a community.
Your child will receive a certificate of accomplishment at the completion of the course.
You can download the course if you are using the Udemy app, even though it will not be downloaded to your storage device directly but still your child will be able to enjoy the course even without the internet.
You child will be able to access this course on mobile and tv.
You also get a 30 days money back guarantee for this course, so if you don’t like the course then you can just ask for your money back. So, there is no risk at all.
- Teach Your Kids to Code: Learn Python Programming at Any Age
Requirements
You are required to have a computer (PC, Mac, or Linux – even Raspberry Pi!) with internet connection.
According to the instructions given by the instructor, you’ll download and install the latest Python 3.7 (FREE!)
You can simply start to code Python in a text editor like Notepad or Word, etc.
You are not required to have any prior knowledge or experience of programming.
Instructors will start teaching from basic, keeping beginners in mind.
What your kids will learn
Your kids will learn to code their own apps and games in Python 3.7 for Mac, PC, or Linux.
They will be able to draw colourful spirals and shapes with turtles graphics in Python and have immense fun.
Your child will program playable games like war or rock-paper scissors with fun.
They will learn to create apps that are interactive and respond to the input given by the user and mouse click.
At the end of this course your kids will be mastered with variables, loops and functions, which will help them to move ahead for more advanced level of programming courses.
Description
This course on Python programming is one of the most popular courses with 22,793 students currently, with numerous positive reviews and students from 163 countries.
There is no doubt that this is a good course, but I will not recommend this course for very young kids. If your kids are at least 10 years old then it is good to go this course. For the children below 10 years of age, it is always recommended by me to teach them Scratch rather than Python.
Your child will learn to code fun filled and colourful apps and games by using Python coding.
Python is one of the most used and powerful programming languages with tremendous demand in most of the tech companies around the world.
The instructor of the course has created this course for the beginners in coding, so if you are experienced in Python then this course is not for you. This course is beneficial for even homeschooling.
Python is considered as the beginner friendly programming language with great opportunity.
There are many doors of opportunities open with Python coding, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, web development and software development etc.
The instructor of this course is Computer Science Professor Dr. Bryson Payne, he is also the author of some of the bestselling books on coding for kids on Amazon.
Your child will learn new problem-solving skills in Python with fun.
They will also learn the basics of coding from variable to loops and functions by developing interactive and engaging apps.
You get 30 days money back guarantee with this course so that you don’t regret buying this course. You can ask for a refund within 30 days.
- Kids Coding – Introduction to HTML, CSS and JavaScript!
Requirements
You are required to have a computer.
An internet connection.
Desire to learn with fun.
You need to have a word processor like notepad.
You are not expected to have any prior knowledge of coding, the instructor made this course keeping the beginner in mind.
What your kids will learn
Your kids will learn the basics of computer programming.
As the web pages are made up of HTML and CSS along with JavaScript, it is very crucial to understand how these programming works.
In this course your kids will learn to code HTML, CSS and JavaScript to develop beautiful and powerful web pages that they can host on the internet.
Description
According to the student’s review the course is created for kids and beginner programmers to learn coding with fun and easy explanations. The way of explanation is very simple yet powerful.
If your child spends a lot of time on electronic gadgets like mobile, tablet or computer then it is the best practice that you as parents involve them in learning coding.
Skilled programmers are highly in demand as programming is making its room almost in every industry. So, if you are willing to prepare your child to face the real digital and technological world where programming is no more an option rather than a compulsory skill to get a high paying job and develop your child’s problem solving skill from childhood then you must go for teaching coding to your kids.
The instructor has prepared this course keeping the children or beginner programmers in mind and explained the concepts through an easy and fun way so that your kids will not learn with being bored rather they enjoy learning coding by creating awesome pieces that encourage them to learn more and more.
The huge positive reviews portray the reality of the course content, as you see the most of students are happy with the course and teaching methods.
The instructor is an experienced programmer, programming since he was 17 years old and presently running a software company. He has presented his long experience of teaching coding to kids in the best manner possible in this course.
You get a 30 days money back guarantee along with this course to make sure there is no risk in buying this course.
- Coding for Kids and Parents: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript ES6
Requirements
You need to have a computer.
An internet connection with the computer.
Have a word processor like notepad.
If you have any HTML / CSS knowledge it will be helpful but not required.
What your kids will learn
Basics of computer programming is explained in this course.
HTML and CSS are taught to create the web pages.
JavaScript basics are taught to add interaction in the webpages.
Learn about ES6 and the new features.
Your child will learn about the concept of variables, operators and functions.
Description
When we want to know about something or seek answers to some questions, we go and google them, and we find the answers are available in most of the cases. This information is available through web pages.
The need of websites containing many webpages are in demand as more and more businesses require to have websites for growing their business by going online. Many personal blogs are written in webpages for the purpose of either making profits or others.
All these shows that it is important to learn how these webpages are made up of. These web pages are made up of HTML, CSS and JavaScript programming, and in this course your child will learn those and will be able to create awesome web pages that can be hosted on the internet and be accessed from all over the world.
This course is with 27 hours of video contents at present.
You get a 30 days money back guarantee, so there is no risk. If you don’t like the course, you can ask for a refund within 30 days.
- FAQ with answers on Online coding classes for kids
- What does coding mean for kids?
- Can kids do coding?
- What is best app or website for Coding for children?
- What are the best free coding online classes for 7th grade child?
- Which is the best gaming coding classes for kids?
- What are some of the good reasons to make your kids learn to code?
- How to teach children to code?
- How can I teach my child to code at home?
- What is online coding for kids?
- Is coding good for kids?
- How do I teach my 4 year old to code?
- How do I teach my 6 year old to code?
- How do I introduce my child to coding?
- How do I teach my 5 year old to code?
- How do kids code for free?
- How do I introduce my 7 year old to code?
- How do I teach my 8 year old programming?
- Why is it important for kids to learn coding?
- What is the best programming language for a child to learn?
- What age should you start coding?
- How do you explain computer to a child?
- How do you motivate students to learn programming?
- How do I teach my child the basic computer?
- What age is appropriate to learn to code?
- Why should my child learn to code?
- What type of computer do I need for my child for coding?
- Is coding a good skill to have?
- Will coding be relevant in 10 years?
- Can I learn to code on my own?
- Tips to know before you get your kid started coding!
- What does coding mean for kids?
coding or programming is a bunch of specific instructions or commands we give to computers in order to make computers understand what we want computers to do.
This coding or programming is also called computer programming language. We use computer programming languages to solve some problems or make repetitive long or short tasks perform easily and quickly.
Now, coding for kids means when kids learn these coding or programming languages in order to instruct or command the computer to do certain tasks.
- Can kids do coding?
Yes, sure kids can do coding but first they learn concepts of coding before jumping into the real coding languages.
‘Scratch’ is one of the best block-based coding platforms for kids of young ages to learn and understand the basic concepts of computer programming.
Kids older than 5 years old can be introduced to coding, where they learn coding concepts with fun and games.
For older kids above 12 years old, they can start learning HTML and CSS, these are simple easy coding. After that they can learn Python programming which is also a beginner friendly programming language.
- What is best app or website for Coding for children?
Many people may recommend a bunch of websites and apps for coding for children. But I would recommend only one website ‘Scratch’ which is one of the best and more than enough for children to learn the concept of coding with fun and games.
There are plenty of quality free resources available for learning ‘Scratch’ for absolutely free.
- What are the best free coding online classes for 7th grade child?
7th grade children can start learning coding by learning HTML and CSS. There are some free courses available on Udemy for learning these.
You can also read the article below for knowing the details about the free coding classes.
‘Free Coding Classes websites for Kids (Genuine Guide)’
- Which is the best gaming coding classes for kids?
Scratch is a powerful platform for kids to start learning coding for games. It is full of fun yet capable of designing beautiful animations, stories and games. Your child can create some amazing games and share with others those are part of this Scratch community.
It provides a drag and drop block-based coding facility for kids, so they can easily learn the basic of coding through developing attractive games.
You will find many quality tutorial videos on YouTube and other online learning platforms for teaching to create games in this platform called ‘Scratch’.
Your kids will be able to develop a wide variety of games and understand the character art, enemy behavior, user control and sound effects etc.
Moreover, this is a great place to teach games to your kids.
The other most popular and well-known game programming platform is Roblox.
Roblox is not only designed for children rather than even teens and adults can also develop amazing games by taking the advantages provided by Roblox.
There is also the currency for games called Robux in this platform of building games in Roblox. This Robux can also be converted into cash and give real money to the creator of the games.
There are many free YouTube tutorials out there for helping your kids to learn programming games in Roblox.
You can also read the article below for more information.
‘Lua Coding for Roblox Absolute Free Classes for Kids (Genuine Guide)’
It is also recommended that as parents it is very crucial that you keep your eyes on your kid’s activities on this platform Roblox for the safety of your child. There is always risk in the online world, so always maintaining a safe zone for your child by parental control on account and keeping your child from strangers and unsafe or inappropriate content is your vital responsibility.
Let your child enjoy the learning but it must not be an ensnare to them for the wrong path.
- What are some of the good reasons to make your kids learn to code?
There are many good reasons to make your kids learn to code. Here are some.
- Demand of skilled programmers exceeds supply.
There is huge demand for coding due to the rapid advancement of technology. Coding is now present almost in every industry. The apps or applications in mobiles are designed by using coding, coding is present in the case of rocket launch, driverless cars are run by coding, coding is present in airlines in controlling the landing of flights, our computers are run on coding, YouTube, Google play, Alexa, artificial intelligence, data science, cyber security, developing software everywhere one thing is common that all these run on coding.
Even at present days the small machines and all the automated machines are also run on coding.
All these things created an immense demand for skilled programmers, whereas the supply of skilled programmers is not enough. It is also projected that this demand will be on rise in the days to come.
- Very lucrative pay scale in programming.
Due to the very less supply of quality and skilled programmers, there is a real lucrative pay scale found in the industry of programming.
- A programmer can work from home.
Programmers can work from home and offer services to all over the world. They are not required to travel far distant for working.
- How to teach children to code?
There are several ways you can teach coding to your children. I will start from the free way to the most expensive way to teach children to code.
- Free way to teach your children to code:
You can just buy a computer and have an internet connection in it and then use the free resources available to teach children to code. Remember there are many free stuff available on the internet that provide a quality learning experience. But in this case you must spend at least one hour of time with your children regularly in order to help your children to understand the matter that they are struggling to understand.
You may have a question: why should some one offer resources for free or will they be good in quality? Most of the cases people provide the basic or beginner’s resources for free in order to make you a customer for the intermediate or advance level, they build trust with you with free stuff and then sell you the advance stuffs, that is where you can be benefited as you kids as a beginner needs the basic resources first to understand the basic concepts of coding. Along with this you can access a bunch of great free tutorials on coding on YouTube.
I think this is the free and the best way to teach coding to your kids as you parents are involved in this learning experience. Remember no one in the world will care about your child’s learning more than you.
You can read the articles below to get knowing about the best free resources for coding for kids.
Free Coding Classes websites for Kids (Genuine Guide)
How can kids learn coding for free? : Exposing the tips people hide from you
- Cheaper way to teach your children to code:
Buy online video course on coding for kids:
Another way to teach your children to code is buying a quality course on coding for kids from an online learning platform, Udemy.com is one of the cheapest and best platforms that I can recommend to you.
You get a bunch of benefits along with the paid course, which is even affordable for anyone.
- You get full support from the instructor for clearing any doubt on the way of learning.
- Access to the community of other students and even get help from them.
- You can go through the video tutorial as many times you want, unless you are confident about the topic.
- Life-time access to the course.
- All the updates to the course are available for the free of cost.
- Certificate of completion available once you complete the course.
- You get 30 days money back guarantee so if you are unhappy with the course, you can get your money back after trying the course within 30 days.
Parents can guide the kids in learning to code by following the coding tutorial in the video course by spending some time with children during coding class. This is the cheapest way to teach your children to code.
- Expensive way to teach your children to code:
Enroll in 1:1 coding for kids classes:
The most expensive way to teach coding to your kids is to either enroll your kids for online or offline 1:1 coding for kids classes.
In this scenario an instructor will teach coding only to your child for a specific time schedule. The cost is determined per class wise.
Because a teacher will spend time on only your kid and again and again that’s how this learning process becomes the most expensive.
There are surely many benefits you get along this process of teaching coding to your kids, so if you can afford then go for it, but if it does not fit your budget then go for the above mentioned process.
Remember the main goal of coding for kids is to teach coding to your kids, so if your kids learn well that’s all, it does not mean how they are learning.
- How can I teach my child to code at home?
At present time, it is very much possible to teach coding to your kids even staying at home, thanks to the advance technology.
You can teach coding to your kids at home in several ways.
First thing that you need for this is to buy or have a computer, you don’t require a super fast computer even an average computer is just fine for teaching coding to your kids.
Second thing you need is the internet connection to your computer. Now this internet speed must be good enough because a slow internet connection will disturb a lot during the learning, which in result will cause discouragement in learning. So, make sure you are having a good internet connection.
Now is the time to look for teaching resources, you can either use the free resources available on the internet or go for paid ways like buying online courses or enrolling in the 1:1 coding for kids classes.
- What is online coding for kids?
Online coding for kids is the term where your kids learn to code on the computer sitting at home rather than travelling anywhere and learning computer coding from an instructor over the internet.
This process of coding for kids is called online, because the entire learning takes place online using a computer connected to the internet.
Online coding for kids is cheaper and affordable compared to the offline coding classes. It is also secure as your kids are not required to travel anywhere. There is also the benefit of time convenience in online coding for kids.
- Is coding good for kids?
Without doubt coding is not only good for kids, it is also almost compulsory for kids, due to the bunch of benefits of computer coding.
Computer coding is the essential other language for the digital age. As children use technological gadgets almost everyday, they must understand how these gadgets are working, by communicating with the machines through a special language called coding or programming.
By learning to code at a very young age, they get prepared for the future challenges.
Coding offers a lot of benefits like it develops creativity, thinking capacity, application of math, communication skill, confidence etc.
- How do I teach my 4 year old to code?
If your kid is 4 years old and you want your kid to learn code then the best platform is ‘Scratch’, it is full of fun and games. So, your kid will learn the concept of coding through easy games and animations.
This is the age to play with the code and have fun.
- How do I teach my 6 year old to code?
‘Scratch’ offers a lot of interesting and attractive stuff to learn coding with fun and enjoyment by creating stories, animations and games.
It is a powerful platform for your 6 years old child to learn the basics of coding.
Your 6 years old kid will surely enjoy this platform beside its a free platform for teaching coding to your kids.
- How do I introduce my child to coding?
First thing that you need to know is that coding is not all about serious stuff rather it offers real fun and joy.
Coding for kids is all about teaching simple coding concepts to kids through creating stories, animations and games using fun filled resources.
‘Scratch’ is one of the best and easy drag and drop coding platforms for kids.
I don’t want to confuse you with too many platforms through which you can introduce coding to your child rather let me tell you the best and most effective way.
Introducing coding to your child is really simpler than you think. You just need to have a computer with internet connection and then go to the ‘Scratch’ website by going to this link https://scratch.mit.edu/ .
Now get a quality free resource of video tutorials of ‘Scratch’ either from YouTube or get a free course from Udemy.com, follow the tutorial and teach it to your child.
You can read this article below for knowing more about this.
How can kids learn coding for free? : Exposing the tips people hide from you.
Free Coding Classes websites for Kids (Genuine Guide)
- How do I teach my 5 year old to code?
Teaching computer coding to your 5 years old kid is really simple. If you want a straight cut answer then I would recommend you to just take the advantage of a free and best platform of coding for kids which is ‘Scratch’.
There are many free resources available over the internet for learning to use the ‘Scratch’ software.
You can take help of YouTube or free courses from online learning platforms, udemy.com is one of the best places to get free courses on computer programming for kids.
- How do kids code for free?
There are many real and quality free resources for kids to learn coding for free.
You just need to spend money on two things, one is a computer system and another is for internet service, the rest of the learning part can be for free.
It is a real misconception that many parents are having is that they need a lot of money in order to teach coding to their kids. Because most of them are informed this through different ways.
But trust me, your kids can learn to code for absolutely free of cost, for younger kids ‘Scratch’ is the best platform I can recommend to you. If you want to be really confused then go and google for it and get a long list of platforms to teach coding to your kids, but if you ask me, as a high school teacher who teaches coding to the kids I would recommend you only one best and free platform that is ‘Scratch’.
If millions of children can learn coding through this software then I believe your children can also learn coding using ‘Scratch’.
Now you may ask me, but how to learn to use this software ‘Scratch’? Fortunately, there are plenty of free resources available on the internet for learning to use Scratch or another word coding.
This is an amazing software full opportunity to learn coding through creating interactive stories, animations and games. Your kids will learn coding by playing with the codes. I can assure that your kids will enjoy this platform, I am telling you from my own experience of teaching coding to kids.
Older kids can start learning coding by learning HTML and CSS and then Python programming language. There are many free resources available to learn the basics of those languages. Check out the article below to learn about the list of free resources. This is the most effective and free way to learn programming for kids.
If you want to learn about the free resources for learning coding then you can read this article below, where I have given the list of quality free resources for coding for kids.
How can kids learn coding for free? : Exposing the tips people hide from you.
Free Coding Classes websites for Kids (Genuine Guide)
- How do I introduce my 7 year old to code?
The best way to introduce your 7 year old kid to code is by teaching programming through ‘Scratch’ software.
It is one of the most popular yet free software to teach coding to your kid.
‘Scratch’ offers a list of benefits for your kids for absolutely free for learning computer coding concepts like iteration and conditionals. They also learn to apply the mathematical concepts such as coordinates, variables, random numbers etc.
Overall ‘Scratch’ develops the essential skills of life in the 21st century.
Take the benefit of free resources available on the internet like on YouTube or online learning platforms like Udemy.com and start teaching coding to your 7 years old kid.
- How do I teach my 8 year old programming?
‘Scratch’ software is designed especially for the children ages between 8 to 16 years old but it is used by the different age groups because of the simplicity and fun filled features of this software.
‘Scratch’ is used in school, home,library in many other places to teach coding to kids. Your kids can create awesome interactive stories, games and beautiful animations by coding on this platform and share with others their unique and beautiful piece of creation in the online community.
Due to the wide range of use of this software, there are plenty of free resources available on the internet for teaching coding to your kids using ‘Scratch’.
- Why is it important for kids to learn coding?
It is important for kids to learn coding as it gives many benefits. Here are some.
- Kids learn to solve problem using coding
Computer coding or programming is instructing computers for the purpose of solving some problem or making our work easy. So, as children learn to code they are in the process of solving problems.
When children code on the computer, they face a lot of challenges because of bugs in code, so they need to find out the bugs in order to solve the problem. All these produce problem solving skills in the child without even their knowledge.
- Coding improves the creativity of self-expression
Creativity is there hidden in every person, but very few people really use this powerful tool that can bring amazing changes in the world.
Look at Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or other famous stars in the world of coding, you will find they all have expressed their creativity to solve some problem, and creativity merge with problem solving leads to great innovation.
Coding helps children to think creatively and create something unique that the world has not seen yet. The opportunity of expressing creativity in the real world of coding is immense.
So, if you want your child to use their creativity of self-expression then coding is a great place.
- Expands the child’s thinking capacities
Computer programming or coding help to expand the thinking capacities of children as they start thinking to create something awesome through computer code.
Thinking is a very intimate part of each and every human being. Every great invention has started to ignite from thinking. Whatever innovations have taken place so far, it has because someone thought about it.
If you look intensely at the work of a software engineer, you will see that most of the time goes on looking at the screen and thinking. A long hour of thinking produces a great piece of creation.
Coding offers this beautiful opportunity of expanding thinking capacities.
- Develop the logical thinking of kids
Logical thinking is an integral part of computer coding. The programmer must use his logical flow of thinking to formulate step by step procedures through coding to produce a desired outcome.
As your child starts to code they start developing logical thinking by using computer codes.
- Children learn to advance in designing skills
Developing websites, apps etc requires designing skills, so as your kids start to code by default they also learn the design concepts.
A good design makes a website or app beautiful and attractive along with user friendly qualities.
- Through coding kid’s math skill is improved
Many concepts of math are applied in coding, as your child continues to code they will be exposed to a lot of math concepts.
Many technical fields like Data Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence etc are deeply connected with maths, whereas math and coding blend together to automate machines, find out the real beneficial data that can bring growth in business etc.
By learning coding your kids will be able to apply the mathematical concepts in the real world to solve some real problem.
- Children experience advancement in communication skill
Through coding children communicate with the computer. As kids learn to communicate with computers in a certain specific way from a very young age, it eventually helps them to advance in communication skills.
They understand that communication is a very crucial activity in every human life and there are some specific ways to communicate for the best result.
- Programming help in the improvement of confidence
Learning to code in computers develops confidence in the mind of children as they learn different programming languages. They acquire confidence by creating some powerful tools using computer code and this confidence helps them to create something more powerful and awesome.
As they continue to become experts in coding, it produces a positive impression of confidence in their young mind to achieve greater things.
- Kids understand how the computer works
Present days technology is present everywhere all around us. children grow up in a world of technology, where they use computer, mobile, tablet etc. And all these devices require coding in order to run.
So, as children use technical machines everyday, they must know how these machines or computers work.
By learning coding, kids understand how the computer works.
Coding for kids is all about the kid’s understanding of the way computers work and instructing the computer to perform certain tasks in a specific way.
- Kid’s concentration improves as kid concentrate on coding
Coding requires a lot of concentration. When kids start to code they practice to concentrate. By practicing coding regularly, kids learn to concentrate on coding for the creation of a tool that a machine can work with. This eventually develops the ability to concentrate, which even helps in their regular academic life.
- Creates interest in learning new things
Computer programming is entirely a new type of language. Coding for kids is an approach where children are introduced to a new type of language to communicate to machines.
As they learn different programming languages, gradually it makes them interested in learning new things.
- Children are being prepared for future career
Coding is almost everywhere, meaning coding or computer programming is occupying its room in almost every industry due to convenience that is made by coding.
It is estimated that job availabilities in computer coding will continue to rise in future as computer code is becoming a part of everyone, take an example, almost everyone use smartphone and all the apps used in the mobile are created by coding, even the mobile itself is running on coding, therefore we can say that computer codes are used by almost everyone even without the knowledge of many.
The abundant use of computer coding makes the career in the field of technology so bright.
Coding for kids is preparing your children to be a part of that bright future by teaching them to code and leading them towards a lucrative career.
- What is the best programming language for a child to learn?
Which programming language will be best for a child is dependable according to the age of the child.
If the child is young and ages between 5 to 12 years old, then they are recommended to learn the Scratch programming language, as it offers an easy to use drag & drop facility rather than writing the code directly, which makes it easy for younger kids.
Scratch also teaches the essential basic concepts of coding through creation of interactive stories, animation and games, which makes kids so engaging and interested in learning more and more.
For older kids ages between 12 to 14 years old, HTML and CSS are best for learning programming.
HTML or Hypertext Markup Language is used to create the skeleton of websites. It is used to form the structure of the web pages by adding the actual content in the right location.
CSS or Cascading Style Sheet is applied to design the web pages by adding styles like layout, background color, visual effects etc in the web pages.
HTML and CSS is easy to learn and use. They are also free to use, supported by all the browsers can be integrated with other programming languages with easy effort.
If your kid is above 14 years old, Python programming language is the best to begin to learn programming.
Python programming language is one of the most popular computer programming languages at present. It is easy to learn and used in many technology industries due to its simplicity and powerful use.
Python programming used in web development, game development, Data Science and Data Visualization, CAD Application, Business application, Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence and Desktop GUI etc.
Due to the wide use of this Python programming language, it became one of the most demanded programming languages in the world of technology.
- What age should you start coding?
If your kids are above 5 years old then they are capable of learning the concepts of coding.
Bill Gates, the owner of Microsoft company started to learn coding at the age of 13.
Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook started to learn coding at the age of 12.
There are many more examples of people becoming rich and established by learning coding from the early young age.
- How do you explain computer to a child?
While teaching computer coding to kids can seem hard but in reality it is easy and fun. Children don’t need to learn all the advanced coding stuff, rather they need to be taught the basic concepts of computer coding by explaining how the computer works, in a simple and entertaining way.
It is very important that your child enjoy learning computers, it’s the task of the teacher or parents to make the learning full of fun. Children must learn computer coding with an easy drag and drop coding platform and by creating some attractive stories, animations and games.
- How do you motivate students to learn programming?
We are living in the era of technology, where technology is not only used almost everywhere but also it is the part and parcel of human lives.
Every year the job availability in computer programming is increasing. Computer programming is spreading its wings in more and more industries. It is solving the real problem of humans by creating amazing technologies. There will be a need for more and more programmers in the future. All these shows the bright and shining look of computer programming or coding.
Programming or computer coding helps students to think logically, improve their communication skill, help them to become a problem solver and innovative, all these are helpful for almost all future careers.
Today’s students are tomorrow’s professional. The syllabus of the school is not enough to prepare students to enable them to be skilled professionals. Learning computer programming adds a lot of extra benefits in the academic life of the students along with their career opportunity.
So, without doubt learning programming or coding for students is a wise and smart choice.
- How do I teach my child the basic computer?
Gone are those days when for teaching basic computers to your child you needed to travel long distances or pay a lot of money. At present time, for teaching basic softwares like Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint or even the basics of programming languages, you are not required to pay any money.
You just need to have a computer with an internet connection, that’s all, there are plenty of free resources available over the internet like YouTube, online learning platforms, to teach computer basics to your child for free of cost.
Overall, teaching computers to your kids is much easier in the present days by the use of technologies.
- What age is appropriate to learn to code?
Children above the age of 5 years are capable of learning the basics of computer coding through creating interactive stories, animations and games by using a drag and drop coding platform.
Teaching coding to kids from a young age adds a lot of additional benefits in the life of the children beside their academic life.
Coding for kids is the approach where parents are encouraged to teach coding to kids.
Children are quick to learn if they are taught in the right manner.
If your child is 5 years old, it is the appropriate time to introduce your child with computer programming by teaching them ‘Scratch’.
- Why should my child learn to code?
It is the question of many parents that ‘why should I teach my child to code?’ or ‘ Is it really important to teach coding to kids?’. There are many reasons for which you must teach coding to your kids, here are some.
- Your child should learn computer coding because it is the essential literacy needed in the digital era like present time.
- kids should understand how the technologies around them are working.
- They must learn to communicate with computers as computers are used everywhere.
- Children must not learn to be only consumers rather than contributors.
- Your child must be prepared for the future career from their young age.
- Kids must learn to solve problems rather than running away from problems.
- Your child should learn to use their math in the real world by coding on the computer.
- Kids must learn to think logically.
- Coding is the language of the digital age.
- Computer coding opens many doors of opportunity.
- Coding is almost everywhere, for example, apps in mobile and computer are made up of coding, e-commerce sites are created by coding, there are too many examples that can be given.
- Coding or computer programming pays well.
- Your kids will be able to work from home in future by learning coding.
- As your kids grow and become professional, they will be able to provide service all around the world by sitting at home.
- Coding is a relevant skill of this technological world.
- The demand for coding skills is growing and projected to grow more.
- kids will be able to develop websites and web applications using coding.
- Your kids will develop applications or apps for mobile and computer by coding.
- Games and animations can be created through computer coding.
- Automated machines can be created by coding.
- Softwares can be developed by coding.
- Databases are developed using computer coding or programming.
- Ethical Hacking requires coding.
- Coding is used in rocket and space technology.
- Computer coding is applied for data analysis and finding the current trends.
There are many more reasons for teaching coding to kids but there is not even one valid reason for not teaching coding to kids.
Overall, Coding for kids is vital and must learn skill, especially in this present time of technology.
- What type of computer do I need for my child for coding?
You don’t require a fast and multitasking computer for teaching coding to your kids. An average computer is just enough for teaching coding to kids.
Having a computer with 4 GB RAM and pentium dual core processor is just great, if you are on a tight budget.
Don’t think that having an expensive computer will help in learning better.
But if you are affordable for a better budget then you can go for 8 GB RAM AND i3 processor, it will make your system to handle multitasking and run much faster.
- Is coding a good skill to have?
Without doubt coding is a good, highly demanded and desirable skill that is widely used in the tech industry and outside it. Due to its extensive use and demand, coding is started to be taught in schools, it is also becoming an essential subject in the syllabus.
Coding is becoming a fundamental and compulsory skill for every child. So, there must be no question of whether I will be teaching coding to my kids or not. You must teach coding to kids if you want your kids to be compatible with the present and upcoming era of advanced technology.
- Will coding be relevant in 10 years?
Coding will not only remain relevant in the upcoming 10 years rather it will become more relevant and an extremely needed skill, due to the rapid advancement of technology.
Coding plays one of the most important roles in the world of technology, we can not think of the present world of magnificent technology without coding.
Without coding your computer, mobile and smartwatch all will become dead objects. Millions of work will be stopped and there will be a severe shut down in the world.
With the passage of time, computer coding is becoming smarter and easy to learn and use. So, we can guess that in the days to come computer code will become more similar to english language as a result easier to learn and use.
It is projected that the upcoming generation is going to see much powerful use of computer coding to make the world more better by solving a lot of real critical problems. In simple terms, the future of technology lies on computer coding.
- Can I learn to code on my own?
This is a very common question from many people, ‘Can I learn to code on my own?’ Or ‘Can my kids learn to code on their own?’.
The answer is Yes. Anyone can learn computer coding on their own. In fact, there are many examples where people become coders just by learning on their own.
According to my experience, for older kids above 12 years old it is very much possible to learn computer coding on their own. Where the younger kids need some extra guidance from parents or teachers.
The availability of high speed internet, and advanced technology made it possible to learn coding easily just by sitting at the comfort zone at home without travelling anywhere.
What you need is just an average computer system with an internet connection, this is enough to learn the basics and even some intermediate knowledge from home even for free. You need to pay some affordable price for an advanced level of learning, if you are going for online courses.
There are plenty of resources available on YouTube and on online learning platforms like, Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn learning, Khan Academy etc.
Coding for kids is also possible without paying huge fees to anyone, and by taking advantage of basic free resources available on the internet.
4. Tips to know before you get your kid started coding!
As you know now the importance of coding for kids, you may be excited to teach coding to your kids from today. But I will share some important tips with you, so that you can make the right decision.
TIP 1: First thing that you must have is an average computer system with internet connection.
TIP 2: Know that your kids can learn basics of coding for free and the intermediate and advance level in very affordable cost by taking the advantages of Free tutorials in YouTube and the free and affordable courses available in Udemy.com
TIP 3: Don’t expect too much from your kids, rather let them begin with playing with codes. They must enjoy coding rather than being burdened.
TIP 4: Let your young child start learning coding by learning ‘Scratch’ programming. As it is a free, easy, drag and drop platform with so much of fun.
TIP 5: Older kids can start coding either by HTML and CSS or Python programming. As it is one of the most demanding and easy to learn coding languages, which is considered as the beginner friendly programming language.
Some additional tips
TIP 6: Coding is all about using creativity to create something unique. So, always encourage your child to create something unique that the world has never seen.
TIP 7: As your child grows, understand their passion and help them to focus on the specific programming language to achieve the expertise in a specific field.
TIP 8: Humans are social beings, as social beings your kids will always seek for the social environment, so try your best to provide that social environment to your kids by letting their siblings, cousins or friends to sit together and learn coding. It will add a special spice in the learning experience of your children.
TIP 9: If you can become a mentor for your kid then it’s great or else find a mentor for your kid, whom your kid can follow. It is said that if you follow the footprint of a successful person, you too will reach the same destination. So, let some heroes of coding become the mentor for your kids.
TIP 10: Give projects to the kids, as your kid accomplishes the project, give them some sort of award to encourage them for the next one.
TIP 11: Encourage your child to make modifications in the code and experiment the effect.
TIP 12: Allow your child to practice again and again because practice makes man perfect. As the coding is all about hand on practice, so More they practice better they learn .
TIP 13: Let your kid code for some specific time and duration, this creates a habit in them. Which helps them to be regular and habitual with coding.
TIP 14: Teach your child how to think when they code but don’t teach them what to think. This will help your child to become a creative thinker.
TIP 15: Help your child to become a mathematical thinker to solve problems in the real world.
5. Essential guide for parents for better experience in coding for kids
- Create a distraction free place
- Make the study room soundproof
- Make a regular routine time for coding for your kids
- Let your kid understand the basic concepts of coding in-depthly
- Encourage your kid to be a bug hunter in coding
- Help your kid to build a professional career goal, immediately after learning the basics
- Create a distraction free place
Distraction is a giant threat in the process of learning coding, especially for kids as they are with short attention spans. A little distraction like asking something or anything else can severely damage the attention.
A research says that once the attention is distracted, it takes almost 10 minutes to be back in that same level of attention.
Therefore, it is vital that you create a complete distraction free place for your kid’s learning coding, make sure during the learning time no one comes to meet your kid, no one calls for any reason unless it is too urgent, no outside noise distract the mind, no talks or music from other rooms is heard etc.
- Make the study room soundproof
It is so common that sounds from other rooms or outside the home will draw the attention of your kids and create a disturbance in the mind of your kids. A little louder talk in another room or outside the home will create a lot of curiosity in the mind of your kid and will harm the learning experience.
Many parents just ignore these small things, but these small factors happening regularly can steal hours of learning and productivity altogether.
You can control this simply by making the room soundproof, it may cost little money but it is surely a wise decision.
- Make a regular routine time for coding for your kids
It is proven that when we do some action as a habit it becomes a part of life, and when something becomes a part of our lives it brings either productivity or unproductivity.
For sure a habit of coding for your kids will bring positive productivity in the life of your kid. This habit can be created simply by letting your kid code in a specific routined time and regularly.
As a result, as you don’t forget to brush your teeth regularly so your kid will not forget to code regularly. and this regular coding habit will take your kid in the next level of amazing innovation.
- Let your kid understand the basic concepts of coding in-depthly
Never ignore the basic concepts of programming as they are the cornerstone of the whole coding journey. Allow your kids to spend enough time to understand the in-depth basic concepts of programming before jumping to the advanced level.
- Encourage your kid to be a bug hunter in coding
There is literally no programmer in the world who has never faced bugs in code. But this bug can create frustration if handled in the wrong way. Encourage your kid to become a bug hunter and teach them that each and every of this hunting takes them one step ahead to becoming a bright programmer.
Let the bug not frustrate them rather put a challenge before them to achieve something new by hunting the bug.
When they face a bug in code, tell them to be cool, relaxed and go for a short walk and start fixing the bug with a restarted mind.
- Help your kid to build a professional career goal, immediately after learning the basics
Once your kid learns the basics of programming, now is the time to focus on a specific goal to achieve, like becoming a cyber security expert, data scientist, artificial intelligence expert, software engineer, web developer & designer, Machine learning expert etc.
Remember the saying, “Jack of all trades, master of none”. So, it is impossible to be a master in the fields of technology.
Help your kid to understand the passion and interest and according to that choose the field they want to master in.
There are numerous opportunities in every field if someone really mastered it.