Your Kid(s) Can Code: Even Before They Start Going To School!

We live in a world full of technology, and what parent wouldn’t want their kid to become a successful tech person?  Think of all of the jobs out there available to someone who knows how to code.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, software development jobs are projected to rise by 19% by 2024.  Not only would learning to code help to line your kid up for one of those jobs, but the prices of learning to code also teaches some valuable lessons and thinking methods.  Learning to code teaches logical thinking, problem solving, and computational literacy.  Not every child will become a coder for their profession, but the skills that coding teaches can be applied to any career out there.

So, when should your child start learning to code?  They can start as young as three years old.  We started Beth when she was three and she loved it!  She constantly asks to play “her code game”.  There are several ways to access coding games for children.  The place to start online is Code.org.  Code.org is a fantastic non-profit organization that encourages kids of all ages, locations, and situations to learn to code.   They are that every child should have an opportunity to learn computer science skills, and they especially target females and underrepresented minorities.  The Code.org Hour of Code program is a great place to start with any child.  They have coding games that will appeal to any child.

If you have an iPad or Android tablet, there are excellent free apps that you can download to let your child use to start learning the basics of coding.  Some of our favorites are Lightbot: Code Hour, Tynker, and Hopscotch (iOS only).  Beth desperately wanted to do the Code.org Frozen coding game, but it was a little too difficult for her when she was three.  We found that the Lightbot: Code Hour app was very doable for her at that age, as long as we monitored and helped out as needed.   

The Lightbot: Code Hour app features a robot that has to move across a maze of tiles and light up certain tiles.  The player has to give the bot commands (move forward, turn, jump, and light up) using buttons with pictures on them to illustrate the command.  Once the player has placed all the commands in the command box, they can run the commands and watch the bot do what the player has told them to do.  Beth loved telling the bot what to do and got so excited every time she got a command sequence right.  The mazes increase in difficulty as the player gets better.  One they move up to level two, they start creating instructional sequences that repeat.  It all seems like fun and games, but they really are learning the building blocks of coding.

A second app that is pretty fun is called Tynker.  This app allows the player to choose from several different games and characters.  Once they start the game, the player has to connect puzzle type command prompts (“walk”, “jump”, etc.) to move their character through the challenges.  Unlike the prompt pieces in Lightbot Hour, which have pictures of arrows and turn signals on them, the pieces in Tynker have the actual words written on them.  For this reason, I would recommend waiting on this app until Kindergarten or First Grade, when your child is able to read.

Hopscotch is another app that is geared toward elementary kids.  I would say that this is the most advanced and difficult of the the apps I am talking about.  It offers players the choice of many different projects to work on, them guides them through writing the code.  This one does require a bit of reading, so I think it is better suited to older kids (second grade and up), unless you are prepared to sit with them the whole time to read instructions and explain.  One thing I really like about using this app as a step-up app for coding though, is that it actually has the player create “when this, then this” type of coding instructions, which are more like the logic sequences required for real coding.

All that being said, I truly believe that any type of coding or pre-coding that kids do will improve their critical thinking and logic skills, skills that will serve them well as they grow. So get your kid(s) coding!