Writing Code For Children
Coding can be both exciting and frustrating, because it requires effort, time, and creativity in order to develop an engaging game or project. In order to achieve the highest level of coding skills, you need to practice coding with your child. Therefore, there are various ways to help them learn to code as well as develop their own projects. Here are 10 tips that parents should consider when developing programming activities for children in their homes:
1. Use Your Phone
You can’t teach a child how to touch their phone by yourself. Therefore, it’s essential for you to use your smartphone camera, so they have more opportunities to see how to code. If you want, turn on your device’s rear camera, but it doesn’t work any different from how to take pictures and send them over email: just keep your eyes open on what your child is doing. Furthermore, it’s a good idea to install an image editor on your children mobile devices in order to make sure that everything they want to do is displayed on a computer screen, as well as being able to show images that they have copied on another social media platform. It’s also safe to say that using tools like Asana, we can make things easier for our little ones by making changes in this document. However, these will not stop you from learning if you give them enough feedback on everything they are doing, because this will guide them even further in their future.
2. Learn By Doing
As you can see, coding is not all about reading books or watching videos. You definitely don’t need to have someone teaching you how to write. Instead, it will become very useful just to have at least a couple hours to start experimenting for yourself. Do you know already which websites have a lot of games and other features? Can you copy some of those ideas and create something similar? Don’t worry – you don’t have to think a lot about how coding works and where you go from here. Just stay out of trouble and try to discover new things. This process shouldn’t only be limited to playing around with code snippets on Google Colab, but also to creating your own apps. A basic app like Snapchat is easy to make, although you need to work together as a team to finish it. The same goes for many popular apps in the market. If you want, make sure that you have the resources to help you, so don’t hesitate in trying different options. When starting an experience, use a public server so that anyone can come on board to join you, without having to worry about anything else. Once you have chosen which option makes sense, look through its documentation, check it out. Then you can try it and make it better from the beginning. There are a few free apps that you can download for your personal purposes as well, even if you don’t have much knowledge and experience. Also, don’t forget about Udemy: this site offers tutorials that will allow you to experiment with coding on almost no cost, in addition to video lessons that will take you through the entire process step-by-step. That should tell you why it is worth it to take a course.
3. Experiment With Other Languages
Language should never stand in the way of imagination. One of the most important aspects of coding is flexibility. So make sure you play with languages such as C++, JavaScript, HTML5, Python, etc. If you choose the language that you consider easy to understand, you may come across a difficult one. What you can find in online communities, forums, and forums can always be found among experts in the space. Moreover, you can always find more information on this topic by entering keywords on google, or look at related posts. Even though many users mention that their initial attempts were unsuccessful, your efforts should bring you closer to your goal. Plus, you can find plenty of courses on YouTube on topics ranging from data science to machine learning. If you would like to explore this field, you can find several webinars as well. Apart from that, as I said before, I think that taking a class is an interesting way to get acquainted with different parts of the field and its processes, and maybe even meet people who can help you in your journey. Make sure that for each project, you can come up with a list of all the required material. When you have a completed product, test it by adding tests to it. Otherwise, you can always modify it until it becomes perfect and ready to receive the necessary approval.
4. Keep An Eye On Everything
You can’t expect children to learn coding if you aren’t looking after them. They are busy going around and getting into things through toys and other things. Most of them have already grown up at home in their families and won’t be distracted by anything out of this world. Still, make sure that you pay attention to the progress as soon as they enter school. After the first classes, spend a week in different schools in your neighborhood or in places where your children stay. If you want, you can enroll them in a small classroom, so that you can monitor their progress. In addition to that, have a group of friends with whom you can discuss things, especially when things aren’t working perfectly. Sometimes children prefer to share their feelings with others, therefore, it’s important for you to listen to them and encourage them with positive comments, regardless of their age. Remember to be patient: each kid has a different personality on the threshold. Also, make sure that they know that having an android app isn’t a real thing. We can always find new ideas every day, so don’t be afraid to give your child an opportunity to make it happen to you.
5. Practice Makes Perfect
Another way to help children understand and appreciate coding is by practicing it. Not only does coding improve attention and concentration, but it also builds logical thinking. Let’s face it: a kid will easily pick up a toy that their parents bought, especially if it looks cool. Try to set clear guidelines for your children in the areas where they want to practice. Having a place where you can watch movies, cartoons, or listen to music, will make it more convenient for your child. Another suggestion that you can do in order to be creative is to organize a card game. You can make different kinds of cards, let them connect via magnets or string, and teach your little boys how to use them.
6. Set Up Realistic Goals
Your focus here should not only be on your child’s development but also on your family. When you have been taught how to build, you should be able to set realistic goals and be able to achieve them. In this case, you can create an example that your son/ daughter could reach. Maybe you want your boy to be the leader of a basketball team – then it will be your responsibility. Being the smartest player in the neighbourhood or a friend’s house is sometimes enough for them to learn how to code. At times, it may seem that nothing is possible and your son/daughter can’t accomplish something. But it comes when you realize that things can actually change. No matter how hard you try, it would definitely be difficult for your children to take over a big company and be promoted if they weren’t given the chance to learn how to code and to solve problems in math. So don’t be afraid anymore, prepare them for this situation when they grow older.
7. Find Resources that Help Your Child
As far as your child needs to know, he probably needs to know more than you can teach him. There are lots of resources for educating your children, like textbooks, internet, and social networks. These have all the necessary pieces of software for your child, and your job is just to find an appropriate source so that he can grasp on to every single idea. The biggest benefit to your child when coding is that you will never give your own advice on how to perform certain actions. So you can take away the fact that it’s your ‘voice’. All of you should follow these steps:
Find books dedicated to coding, start talking to teachers who can recommend you an educational course. (You can search for them online by typing keywords like “programming for young kids” on Google.) Download an application that is specially made for your child. Now, you can show your child that it is beneficial and you can encourage him/her to download it. Search for applications like Skype, Microsoft Office, WeChat, etc., and you can start cooperating with them (you can sign up for unlimited subscriptions or for individual plans depending on the quality you require). Go to Facebook pages or Twitter accounts of experts in order to find information.
8. Encourage Them to Play
Besides coding, what we can do even better than play with our children? Have them play games? Or do cartoons? Well, you can teach your child how to program them yourself for a long period of time and then show them how amazing they are! If you want to add some extra dimension to your child’s world of coding, why not play a game of chess instead? Or a game of tic-tac-toe? Some strategies and rules could be programmed into the games. Of course, the game of tic-tac-toe should be considered only as a strategy game, but you can definitely use a broader range of elements to enhance the same. Add one additional element
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