Teaching your Child About Programming
An introduction to learning programming skills using Scratch
Are the kids running up the walls and becoming honorary zoom meeting participants on that client meeting? No matter what you try, they can’t seem to settle down quietly with *insert distraction here* ?
In this series, I will go through some simple guides for getting your kids interested in programming.
I will first use Scratch — a popular beginner programming language, perfect to entertain and stimulate any young child, so you can get your work done.
Now, you may be asking: Why should my child learn programming at such this young age? The reason is simple. The more we progress with a technological savvy world, it is no longer a skill reserved for this secret society of programmers, nor is it only for garage start-ups with a revolutionary idea. The ability to understand how computer programs work has become an important part of today’s society. By teaching these skills while young, kids expand their ability to communicate and develop strategies for problem solving and critical thinking.
This program is best suited for younger kids aged 8–16 years old. The main idea is that this program uses a series of multi-color blocks that connect like puzzle pieces. You will then drag and drop to connect each one to form the code. Each block color represents a different goal, so it is easy to navigate.
In my next post, I will go over how to get started using scratch and review the individual categories of available blocks.
