The Two Coding Programs We’re Using
It’s a big priority in our house for our girls to learn to code.
We love that it will help them understand the way the online world works, plus gives them a skill they can always use to earn money in a flexible way, including through high school and college.
This summer, both of our older girls will be working on their skills, and I’m so excited for them!
Here are the two coding programs we’re using this summer:
The Two Coding Programs We’re Using
CODESPARK
This is the coding program that Ani, our 8 year old, is doing. CodeSpark is designed for kids 5-9, requires no reading, and is meant to be super fun and engaging, with lots of problem-solving skills. I’ve done a fair amount of research on CodeSpark and I’m so impressed with their mission, their thoughtful design, and how great of a product it is.
If you have a child curious about coding, CodeSpark is the perfect place to start with tons of activities, projects and puzzles to hone their initial skills.
You can have three different kid profiles on one account, so if Star (age 6) is interested, we’ll have her do it this summer too! You can sign up for a free seven day trial here if you’d like to give it a spin!
CODEVERSE
Ella finished the Codeillusion program last month (I’ll share more about that soon) which meant she has a fairly serious coding foundation.
I put Bart in charge of finding a program that would help her keep growing her skills and use the things she’s already learned, and after looking at many options, Bart was most impressed with Codeverse, and we signed up for an account.
It’s designed for kids 6-14 and uses a real programming language, plus lets kids build real apps and games (this is just what we were looking for!). There are live classes you can take and a project library with so many fun projects you can work your way there or tweak to make your own.
You can do a free 7 day trial of this one too!
Have your kids done any coding? I’d love to hear what programs and platforms they’ve liked!
This sounds interesting! I’m curious how your girls could earn money through high school and college with coding. I’d love for my girls to have some of these options. What were you thinking?
Thanks!
It’s one of the easiest skills to freelance! You can get a part time job or project based jobs building or designing sites or apps or programs or build your own and selling them. Every single website, app, or program you use is built with code by developers and they’re always in demand because it’s not like you build Instagram once and then it’s done – it’s constantly being updated and improved and tweaked.
Totally interested in signing my older kids up for that. How many minutes per day will you have your girls spend on that program?
We haven’t set specific times – probably 30-60 minutes.
I wonder if there are programs out there for adults that are this simple to understand – I am terrible at math and that type of thing and have memory issues from some strokes so I would need a program that goes slow and is repetitive with opportunities to repeat what I have learned many times to make sure I get it. I will search – you are right, coding is super versatile and a great skill to have! Good on you for making sure your girls have a skill like that so young!
for a relative beginner 10 yo who has a little experience, would you recommend codverae or code illusion ?
My kids started with code.org at school around K/1 and moved on to Scratch after that. Lots of Scratch books available at the library and it’s a free program developed by MIT.