Coding for kids: How you can help
We as parents don’t always have a handle on technology like our children do. Our world runs on different rules and technology. Today, life is hardly the same as children can learn and do far more in today’s world. If you believe your child has the aptitude and could develop an interest in something like coding, then there are two possible emotions a parent may feel. One, they should feel very proud that your child is capable of learning from a young age, and two, they may be worried about how well-equipped they are to handle the future. Why make them work? This is when they need to play! Coding is indeed complex when seen as a whole, but the point behind good coding classes for kids is that they will actually enjoy learning how to code and develop it as a skill they can use in the future. There are also more personal advantages that accompany a child when they are in the process of learning how to code. The primary advantage is the learning process itself. This will give a child a rudimentary learning framework they will build upon for the rest of their lives. Coding and programming are the same, right? While coding and programming are indeed related, they have distinctly different functions. Coding is the process of encoding the instructions you want into a language the computer will understand. Programming is the process where the instructions are actually fed into a machine so it will run in a way specific to the instructions given. Algorithms on the other hand, are what are used to build the logic of a set of instructions to understand the overall picture. Algorithms are built first before the code is written. How to make learning fun?
Coding is fun, creative, and can be taught to children in the same way! It’s not like they need to be started on the C++ or Python right away. They need to start with a language that will be easy for them to learn and easy to use. Block languages are designed to be easy to use and require no form of actual coding at first. Block languages are more “Drag and Drop” and are the perfect tools for educating children in rudimentary programming. If your child is still younger than 10 years old, then they will find Block languages like “Scratch” to be fun and entertaining. How can you help them learn coding when you don’t know how? Well, this might be difficult to hear but if you want to be able to teach your child coding on your own then you will need to buckle down and learn how it all works. It would also be helpful if you considered learning how to use website building languages as well, like HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Even something as simple as the difference between designers and developers will be difficult for a normal person to understand. This is simply because they will not have the knowledge required to make the distinction. (Designers focus on how it looks, Developers focus on how it works, both are vital when building a website or User interface.) However, there is an alternative if you wish for them to get the best training available. There are a lot of great online courses out there that come with some spectacular learning tools for children. This is an excellent opportunity for them to find out what technologies they like and whether they need to explore that domain as their career. The best online courses also offer international certification that can confirm your child’s expertise in coding once the course curriculum is over. And it doesn’t stop there either; your child could go on to master computer languages and programming tools that adult programmers still struggle with. When children show interest in something, the sky's the limit!