Moms may feel stressed out when it comes to picking the right coding classes for their kids. They know it’s smart to enroll their child in a fun course that teaches STEM skills but may struggle to identify the best program if they aren’t coders themselves.
On the surface, the advertising for coding courses all kind of looks alike and differentiating between them may be difficult. How can mothers know what online coding course to pick?
If you’re looking for answers, please read on.
Table of Contents
1. Fun Matters Most
Anytime children are in a program, nothing should matter more than having fun. Kids need to enjoy their childhood and have fun playing, especially after the dismal years COVID-19 left in its wake. If a good time is all the program gives to them, that’s enough! How can parents tell which coding classes are the most fun?
Look for a school season coding program that revolves around teaching students how to design and code their own video games. If you’ve ever needed a crowbar to separate your child from the game they’re playing, you know how much they love gaming.
Computer coding courses that put video games at the heart of the lessons harness this love of gaming for learning purposes. Whatever age your children are, the course will show them how to make a game suitable for their levels of interest and experience.
“Gamification” is also popular in pedagogy, and leading computer coding courses embed these concepts into their classes. Basically, the course material uses the same design features that keep children hooked on playing games to learn computer skills.
Sometimes teaching kids valuable skills feels like pushing them to eat their vegetables. Find a program that revolves around creating video games, so kids are hungry to learn and don’t need any pushing from their parents.
2. Useful, Powerful Coding Languages
It’s great to have some general computer skills, but nothing replaces the specific skillset that the tech sector requires. Parents should know that when the programming class is finished, their kids will leave with in-demand coding skills.
Some online coding programs begin with drag-and-drop software that isn’t really a coding language. Such teaching tools may approximate what coding is like, but nobody in the field ever uses Scratch to build a website, app, or video game.
Even kids as young as six are at the right age to plunge themselves into basic coding languages. Look for an online coding program that teaches the most popular and powerful languages, such as:
- Python
- Java
- JavaScript
- C#
- C++
These are the languages used to build things millions of people use daily, such as the streaming platform Netflix, or one of the world’s most popular video games, Minecraft. You may not be a coder with inside knowledge of what it’s like. But giving your children the tools to build today’s most successful video games, apps, and websites can only be good.
3. Lots of Support
The content of coding classes is crucial, but so are the structure and atmosphere of the sessions. The world’s best coding teacher can be your child’s instructor, and if they have to deal with excessive students, the class will turn into an exercise in classroom management.
The most productive classroom environments have a small ratio of teachers per student, so sessions are orderly and productive. Look for a class with a maximum of four students for every instructor, so each student gets the level of support kids to need when learning any new subject.
Kids shouldn’t slip between the cracks because they’re too shy or timid to ask for help, as can happen in larger classes, whether online or offline. It’s even better if the programming course you select has no mandatory minimum, so you know it’ll run as scheduled, even if your child is the only student.
You don’t want to find out the program is cancelled after your child gets excited about it because not enough other kids have signed up. After all the disruptions of the past few years, parents surely appreciate some predictability and reliability in their calendars.
4. Young Teachers
It helps when kids learn from teachers who are excited about the material. It only makes sense to have kids learn how to design video games from teachers who also grew up playing them as kids.
Leading coding programs tend to hire computer science and computer engineering students. Such an approach ensures they are young enough to have played video games on a computer or home console, rather than pump quarters into the local pinball machine at the arcade.
Nostalgia for retro video games is at such an all-time high that kids today even play games from decades ago, so it’s possible that students and teachers may play the same games. Either way, just having a teacher who knows first-hand what gaming is like can help create a more infectious learning environment.
Passion is more liable to trickle down when it’s genuine and there’s a lot of it. Plus, undergrads with computer backgrounds are well-positioned to answer any practical questions older students may have about how to navigate the job market.
5. Modern Equipment from Established Programs
Many educational programs popped up like mushrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic, while existing ones pivoted to online learning to meet the needs of the day. It’s best to skip a business that opportunistically tried to cash in on the necessity of remote learning.
Look for an online coding course for kids that has operated for years or even decades. Such programs have a time-tested curriculum they’ve refined over the years.
Some established programs invested in a modern CMS system and other tools to make remote learning more natural, intuitive, and effective.
Mothers have had an incredibly difficult time during the pandemic trying to juggle their careers, manage households, and still have energy left over to be parents. Extra curriculars are a great way to let your child have fun in a stimulating and productive way. When it comes to computer coding, don’t just settle for any old program. Select one that meets the above criteria to get the best possible results.
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