We’ve been introduced to coding concepts our entire lives, and we can take those concepts and foster an interest in coding in our kids.
Have you ever thought to yourself that you wished someone would have taught you something sooner? Most of us have. Knowing some things as a child would have just made things easier to understand. In hindsight, we know that our minds were sponges, and we could have done so much more than the adults in our lives even realized. Yet, when we become adults, we repeat the cycle of underestimating our kids and their powerful minds.
Break out of the cycle. The children in your life can do more than you ever imagined, including learning computer programming languages and basic coding concepts. At an average starting age of about 7, our children are ready to learn how to code.
Once we accept that they’re ready, we need to educate ourselves on what coding is and what it can do for them. Then, we’re more prepared to engage them and encourage an interest in this amazing field of study.
Coding is the process of giving a computer the instructions to perform tasks and functions. Without coding, computers just wouldn’t compute. Coding is what gives function to any computer. From the simple computers, we call microwaves and coffeemakers to the complex open-world video games that connect multiple people around the world through powerful gaming consoles and PCs.
Coding is even how you shop online. Through various computer programming languages, programmers and developers create solutions and useful tools and applications that all of us use on a daily, if not hourly, basis.
It sounds complex and intimidating, but the thing is, anyone can learn to code. That includes the youngest minds among us, and with the way the world of technology is heading, you can imagine how useful and valuable skills like coding will continue to become in the future.
So, how do we get kids interested in coding?
If they can read, they can code. It’s that simple. However, even before they can read, you can stimulate the logical problem-solving mindset that the basic coding concepts are built on. Teaching them how to think through mazes and puzzles can help build the foundation for learning to make an algorithm.
We often think of concepts as so advanced, and it makes them intimidating. When a student walks into algebra class for the first time in 9th or 10th grade, they often declare that they will never understand algebra. They proclaim their hatred for the topic and how difficult it is to learn.
The funny thing is that those students were doing algebra in kindergarten. Seriously! When the teacher gave them a problem that said 1 + O = 4 and told them to write the number in the bubble that made that true, they were secretly learning algebra. But, the belief that they have to reach a certain age to learn algebra is what makes it intimidating.
Imagine those same students knowing that they are just going to be building on concepts they’ve already mastered. Their confidence is restored, and unsurprisingly, they will perform better. Allowing young children to learn concepts early that they can use in coding later will set them up for success and keep them engaged.
Meet your future programmer at their ability levels. Let them explore their limits through creativity, a little trial and error, and a lot of fun. As your student progresses, match their abilities with the programs you offer.
Just remember, again, to keep it fun. Pushing too hard to advance can dissuade your students, and with so many possibilities with coding, there’s no rush for your student to grow faster than they’re ready. This also cuts down on their frustration, and they’re more likely to stick with coding.
Of course, you want your student to love coding for coding’s sake, but kids are just as diverse in their interests sometimes as adults. Finding ways to incorporate their other interests can help keep them engaged and interested in coding.
Talk with your child or student and find out what they like. Ask them about what they think code could do for them. Try to align their objectives with their dreams of coding and see just what they can create.
Even a 5-year-old can learn the concept of an algorithm. They deal with algorithms all the time, but they don’t know them by that name. An algorithm is just an instruction to complete a certain task and receive the desired result.
Asking children how to complete a task like pouring a glass of milk can teach this concept. Have the children begin telling you everything you need to do to pour a glass of milk successfully.
Things like opening the cupboard, getting the glass down, taking the milk out, and actually pouring the milk. Breaking the steps down takes you through the entire process from start to finish. That’s an algorithm, and that’s a coding concept.
Says one parent,
“We love Codeverse! My son looks forward to his session every week. The Guides are really great and engaging and he always gets off and says "Mom, Rate that one EXCELLENT" I have found that it also has helped him with his planning of things that we have to do throughout the day because he is thinking in steps of what to do first, then what to do next, etc.”
Sequencing is the concept of completing a task in a certain order to achieve the desired result. Sometimes the order you do things in gives you an entirely different result, and sometimes it doesn’t. If a person goes outside and then gets dressed, that’s a pretty embarrassing outcome. However, if a person puts their left sleeve on before their right sleeve, that doesn’t change the results much.
A common way to teach this is through task cards. For example, if I have a set of cards that depict how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from beginning to delicious sandwich end, they have a certain order to them. Children can easily use their problem-solving skills to order the pictures correctly. They can also see where their sequence and someone else’s sequence got to the same result.
All of this is a building block of coding.
In a loop, with coding, a task is performed repeatedly until the user gives instructions for the task to stop. Sometimes in coding a loop limit is set, so the task is only repeated a certain number of times. Other times, certain conditions must be met to stop the loop.
The concept of a loop is an easy one to teach, and just about every generation alive today played games as a child that taught this concept. Kids know what a loop is, and they will happily shout to you that they go around and around and around. You may find yourself listening to them in a loop about loops.
So, how have we been teaching this concept for generations? Duck-Duck-Goose! Children sit in a circle. Then, another child makes a LOOP around them. All the while, they are tapping the sitting children with a “duck,” “duck,” “duck.” When the child taps someone and says, “Goose,” the loop is broken. Sometimes the teacher will limit the number of times the person who is “it” can go around the circle. Additionally, if the “goose” catches up to the person who was “it”, a new “it” is established for the loop to begin again.
Debugging isn’t about pest control. Debugging is fixing a set of instructions so the desired results happen correctly.
This is such an important concept, and it’s a life skill that translates to other areas outside of coding. The first step in debugging is identifying that there’s a problem. If only we could always identify when there’s a problem in life, right?
To teach kids this concept, you simply offer them the steps to complete a task, but you intentionally put in an incorrect step or a step that’s out of sequence. As the children pay attention to the steps and think through the process, they will identify the problem that’s keeping them from completing the task.
Let’s say the kids are going through the process of going to bed. One step past “Go to sleep,” they see the step, “Brush teeth.” It’s pretty silly to be asleep before you’re brushing your teeth. The children will identify the step that’s out of place, and they can tell you where it should be in the order. Your class just debugged a problem. Learning to take a deep breath and patiently retrace their steps will help them problem solve in all aspects of their lives.
These are just a few core concepts, but as you can see, it’s easier than it may sound to teach coding concepts to your kids.
Starting to develop the concepts and appreciation for coding is the key to getting kids committed to learning this fun and creative and problem-solving life skill that can open up opportunities for them in the future. We’ve touched on a few concepts and how you can help engage children when they’re quite young.
With these concepts at an early age, they’ll be ready for coding as soon as they can read. One of the best parts of being a child is having fun, playing, and creating. Coding should be that for a child too. So offer them opportunities to learn the concepts in a fun way, and meet them at their level as you introduce programming programs.
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