How to Determine if Your Child is Ready to Learn Coding and Where to Start
The number of jobs in STEM fields is consistently increasing in the employment sector. There is no doubt that providing children with an early understanding of the world of work will greatly benefit them in terms of preparing for the competitive job market.
If you have no knowledge of coding yourself but still want to teach your children how to do it, it can be overwhelming to pick which language to start with. Where is the ideal starting point, and how can you determine if your child is prepared?
These are some suggestions to help you figure out the responses to those concerns for your kid.
Teaching My Kids to Code… Where Should I Start?
There is a varied collection of coding languages, each of which was developed to serve a unique purpose. Two of the most beneficial languages for new coders to learn are HTML and CSS. These languages are used to create websites. If your kid has a passion for crafting and solving puzzles, introducing them to HTML and CSS could prove to be an excellent choice.
HTML is the building block of websites. HTML is not as difficult to comprehend as programming languages such as Python or JavaScript, making it much easier to learn. It is not necessary to master HTML completely to create a straightforward, fixed website. It is simple to insert, adjust, or take away any component of the website via HTML without destroying the entirety of the page.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a programming language that enables a person to quickly and conveniently adjust the visual components of a website, including font size, font color, and page arrangement. You don’t need to take the time to individually alter the settings of each web page through its HTML code; you can modify all of them with just one CSS document.
Is My Child Ready to Learn to Code?
Parents have a deep understanding of their own children, but even eight year olds can start to study HTML and CSS. Exploring the inspect feature on Google Chrome is a smart way for kids to start engaging with HTML and CSS.
Kids can alter something like hue or the size of the font without worrying that they will “damage” the website. If your kid knows the fundamentals of reading, writing, and spelling, they are almost certainly ready to start learning a programming language.
The uncertainty of the employment sector in the future is unavoidable, however, one certain thing still stands: employment opportunities in STEM are more in demand than ever before and will continue to be so. As opposed to waiting until they are older, start teaching your kid the basics of coding at an early age, enabling them to get ahead with any type of career they may choose later in life.
Teaching Kids How to Code with Fun and Games
Many of us can recall experiencing playtimes when we were younger, be it enjoying board games at home, playing entertainments while traveling, or constructing our own amusements with our pals or siblings.
Fred Rogers once pointed out that playing games can be very beneficial in a child’s life and that it should not to be seen as just a distraction from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning.”
Playing games is one of the simplest and most effective methods of teaching children anything, and this includes teaching them a new coding language.
Learn to Code With Hopscotch
Hopscotch is a simple application designed for children aged five and up to have fun as they start to understand coding fundamentals. It is very vibrant and cheerful. With Hopscotch, children can learn programming by picking out options that create and write the code for them.
They can create games, animate drawings, and more. Playing hopscotch is a great way to give kids a jumpstart in learning the basics of computer programming which is the foundation for learning coding languages down the road.
Learn to Code With Scratch
Scratch is a free website that provides children with instruction in coding through the creation of stories, games, and animations. Kids can put together pieces of code, similar to playing Hopscotch, to create a program.
Scratch is designed especially for 8- to 16-year-olds, while the Scratch Jr program can be used by children who are as young as five.
Learn to Code With Tynker
Tynker is very well-known for assisting children in learning how to program. Tynker provides a variety of options, including educational programs and resources specifically designed for teachers, that give kids the opportunity to learn coding.
By utilizing visual coding blocks much like Hopscotch and Scratch, it allows younger children to commence learning programming without having to worry about making use of written code.
As technology is gaining more and more prevalence in our lives, the capacity to code will be a significant asset in the future. Having a basic understanding of computers and the ability to code is becoming critical in today’s world.
In the end, understanding coding is not just limited to positions involving programming. Having coding experience can be beneficial for a variety of tasks, for instance constructing websites, managing data sets, and participating in computer animation.
Programming abilities can open up a world of possibilities for a child, allowing them to go in any direction they may choose in life and have an unrestricted potential for the years to come.
Coding 101 for the Homeschooling Parent – HTML/CSS
HTML and CSS are the fundamental components of constructing a website. HTML constitutes the language that lays out the structure of a page while CSS is what designs the page’s presentation. How do these work together?
In HTML, you create elements and tags. CSS employs characteristics and numerical values to indicate what action should be taken with the components in the HTML. For instance, a paragraph is marked by the HTML
tag. Everything that is between the
and
markers is regarded as a single paragraph.
This is my paragraph. It has three sentences. This is the last sentence.
With CSS, you can alter the appearance of all elements that have the same tag.
p {
color: green;
font-size: 14px;
font-style: italic;
}
The CSS code above makes the paragraph look like this:
This is my paragraph. It has three sentences. This is the last sentence.
Simple, right? Obviously, this is just the start. CSS possesses a strong capability to manipulate nearly every element in HTML. CSS Zen Garden shows the beautiful power of CSS. Your imagination is the only limitation.
JavaScript
If HTML provides the framework, CSS sets the design, and JavaScript adds the dynamic aspects of the page. This language usually executes in the browser, so it does not require a connection to a database – it’s a script-based language. JavaScript is able to acquire information in a form, retain values, and initiate an occurrence when a button is pushed. Utilize JavaScript to construct a form that will convert feet to meters, a calculator to compute tips, or a test, or use it to adjust the function of your mouse on the monitor.
JavaScript is capable of interfacing with APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), which are already-made components that allow computer applications to communicate with each other. The Geolocation API permits Google Maps to demonstrate your current geographic location. The Canvas Application Programming Interface can be utilized for animations and graphics in games. You can use APIs to show your Twitter posts on your website. We’ll get back to APIs later.
Coding 101 for the Homeschooling Parent – Scratch
JavaScript may be easy for some to learn and is practical for creating animations and games, however Scratch is a great starting place for kids and is also enjoyed by people of all ages.
So no, your child isn’t talking about being itchy! Scratch has an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop screen that can assist kids in learning complex programming ideas such as variables, loops, and conditions. This programming language, which has been developed by MIT Media Lab, is visible and used by people in over 150 countries, with the option of being available in over 40 languages. The programming is based on an event-driven system, where activities are initiated by actions done by the user. Children are able to quickly program a command and observe the results immediately. Gaining expertise with Scratch not only boosts coding ability; it is an incredible resource for enhancing creativity in numerous academic areas.
Python
Python is a server-side programming language. JavaScript maintains data on the user’s end and does not interact with a database or storing the details for an extended period. On the contrary, Python gives you the capacity to create applications and store information such as usernames, passwords, and game scores even after the browser session is closed.
Python is clear and straightforward, making it a fantastic first step for children to learn. Python is a programming language that utilizes elements of natural language, making it easier to compose code quickly compared to other common languages. It has an uncomplicated and uniform structure of expression as well as a vast collection of pre-programmed functions that are ready to be used. No need to reinvent the wheel with every program. It can run on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Due to the fact that Python has a simple syntax, your child can concentrate more on developing the ability to reason like a coder.
When your kid becomes knowledgeable in Python, they may mention CRUD. They are not using foul language; they are discussing the four main operations associated with data retention in software coding: creation, retrieval, modification, and destruction. No server-side programming means that there is no way to store information in a database that can be accessed later.
So what sites use Python? It’s everywhere! Google, Instagram, Spotify, Netflix, Uber. The list is endless.
But why is it called Python? Guido van Rossum, the creator of it, entitled it after Monty Python’s Flying Circus since he was engrossed in the scripts of the show while creating it. Your kids likely won’t understand the context, but you can still laugh at the creator’s funny remarks.
Coding 101 for the Homeschooling Parent – Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
Object-oriented programming languages, such as Python, are all structured around a single, basic principle: combining related information, creating code that can be used multiple times, and maintaining an orderly format.
Let’s imagine an online shop that sells home goods. One product might be cushions, which would fall into the category of home furnishings. In this store, cotton is a common trait of all the pillows on sale. If we assume that all pillows here are made of cotton, there would be a variety of different pillows to choose from. But the pillows have different shapes. One type of pillow could be shaped like a square and the other may have a rectangular form. Within the square category, there could be two items: throw cushions and floor cushions, and within the rectangular class, one could find bed pillows.
In this structure, the subclasses obtain the data from the overarching class by arranging the information. The evidence suggests that there is no need to make an extra copy of the cotton material since it already belongs to the main group.
The first of the four essential elements of Object-Oriented Programming is inheritance, encapsulation, abstraction, and polymorphism. The set of data can be organized in such a way that it can be reused (inheritance), restricted to the amount of content shared (encapsulation), minimized (abstraction), and permit objects to imitate each other’s actions (polymorphism).
Empowering Your Kids with the Magic of Learning How to Code
It is now common knowledge that it is essential for children to gain an understanding of coding. The number of jobs available in STEM is growing and becoming more plentiful every year. As technology continues to pervade all parts of our lives, gaining programming proficiency is becoming essential for a successful career in the future.
What other benefits can programming provide to your child besides the potential of a lucrative career? Are there any other benefits? Let’s take a look at three crucial areas where coding can be advantageous to your kid.
Problem-Solving With Code
Gaining knowledge of coding can significantly alter how children tackle problems. As adults, the ability to bounce back from difficulty is essential for success and teaching young ones how to be resilient at an early age can have a significant positive effect on them as they confront hurdles.
When a line of code is behaving differently than what was expected, this provides a child with the chance to look at it, alter it, or start from scratch. Coding is an educational activity that provides the capability for a student to make corrections on their own. In the long run, programming instructs kids that any issue can be gotten through with dedication, persistence, and determination.
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