If you are going to teach kids programming, do it gently. You can scare kids away from coding for life if you approach it in the wrong way such as by forcing them to do it. If your child is showing resistance to coding, hold off for a few years until your child is older and showing interest in coding. Here are a few more tips and tips to teach kids programming.
Help Kids Understand The Underlying Concepts
Help your kids understand the principles of coding by showing how coding affects their daily lives. Computer coding affects real-life, from turning on lights to controlling power stations.
Traditionally, the first thing you teach a child is how to make the “Hello World” program whether it is a program that runs on a computer or be it a message that pops up on the screen.
“Hello World” is a very quick, fairly simple program or command, so it’s satisfying for kids to put their coding knowledge quickly into action. It really cements the idea in the child’s mind that a few lines of code can make a computer do something.
Work At The Child’s Pace
Work at the child’s pace, especially if the child is grasping the concepts quickly and making good progress. Don’t do the whole, “Let’s stop there because I don’t want to overload you with information.” This is perhaps one of the most damaging things a teacher can say to a coder. It suggests a limit to learning, it suggests a limit to fun and a limit to how much can be done.
If anything, you should have a pre-planned time for the lesson to end, so that the stopping time is not a limiting factor. Or, you should work until a project is completed and then come back next time to learn more.
You Will Have to Go Over It Again
When teaching kids things like coding and spoken languages, you will have to go over the same concepts again during the next lesson. Don’t treat it like a refresher. Treat it like you are teaching the same lesson again, except this time you are dealing with more experienced students.
Obviously, you don’t have to re-do lesson one every time, but some lessons need going over again in the next session because the kids don’t yet have a foundation understanding of coding. It is just like learning to drive. You have to go over the basics quite a few times before you are comfortable pulling off the three-point turn.
Learning to code is an empowering skill for kids and teens to utilize. It opens the world to a variety of careers and can be applied in many different ways from finance to design. Many kids get a taste of coding from Hour of Code at school and that can be the beginning of a lifelong interest.
p.s. Related posts:
Cubetto: Coding Toy for Preschoolers!
How to Teach 3rd Grade Boys to Program in Scratch
STEM TOY: Ozobot (robotics using markers)
Coding For Kids Can Fill the STEM Gap
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