1 Free Coding App For Your Kids To Easily Learn Coding Without Help
Introduce your child to coding with a free, easy-to-use tool. With Scratch, your kids can learn coding independently without any help. Learn the benefits of coding and find answers to all your coding-related questions for your child.
Coding for kids? Is it beneficial?
But how can kids learn coding on their own?
Coding classes are expensive.
These concerns cross your mind when you think of teaching coding or computer language to your child. What if I say there is one 1 free coding app where your kids can easily learn coding without help?
YES, with some initial support, your kids can learn coding themselves using the Scratch coding app.
I came across Scratch through an Edutopia article. Since then I’d been wanting to write a blog to spread awareness about the scratch app amongst parents and my fellow educators.
Without further ado, let me introduce you to Scratch programming language and how your kids can make animated stories and games with it.
At no cost!
Don’t think computer coding is for your child? Wait till you reach the end of this blog.
Let’s come straight to the point.
What is Scratch?
Scratch is a free block-coding language.
Can you imagine your child creating full-fledged interactive games and animated stories?
No?
Not until you knew about Scratch.
It lets your kids bring their ideas and fantasies alive, in animated videos and games.
Now, it takes skills and training to do animation. Experienced animators take 8–10 weeks to create a short 1-minute video. Using Scratch, your child can create brilliant interactive games in a few hours.
How?
By putting a block of code over the other.
Sounds like Lego building construction toys, right?
Well, it kind of works like that, BUT on a computer.
Scratch introduces your child to the programming world by fostering their creativity and coding skills.
I know this is hard to believe.
You need proof.
👉 Play this game made by a 13-year-old, with Scratch ⤵
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/732877508/
Or, watch this kid showing the game he designed on Scratch.
I know by now you’re burning with curiosity.
Read on. You’ll find all your answers.
Who made Scratch?
Created by the Scratch Foundation, Scratch coding is the baby of Mitchel Resnick (Computer Science Researcher at MIT Media Lab) and David Siegel (Computer Scientist).
With bazillion kids coding apps and courses, few booming and many failing, it’s hard to trust one. Right?
This raises your next doubt!
Can I trust Scratch for my child?
Unlike typical coding programs, Scratch boosts your child’s soft skills and grooms them overall.
Scratch programming promotes social and emotional development in children, according to a 2012 study in Spain. The same research suggests it also encourages self-learning.
“Incorporating Scratch into the Fundamentals of Programming classes would make a positive contribution to student performance. It also allows students to develop the concepts of programming logic and the use of certain basic control structures.”, concluded a 2021 study in Ecuador.
Scratch makes your kid a reflective thinker and problem solver.
Numerous studies and research hint towards the positive effect of Scratch.
BUT, don’t keep your expectations too high,
like this one. 👇
Will my child be able to create computer programs with Scratch?
Yes and No.
Before you think this article wasted your time, and you go on to hit
↩ (Back) or ╳ (Exit),
hear me out once.
Because Scratch is a block coding language, your child can make block codes. They don’t create computer programs but arrange chunks of codes together.
If you want to bring your kids into the world of computer programming, then Scratch is the door for you.
Scratch is also a huge community of programmers, coders, animators, and teachers where kids imagine, create, and collaborate with creators around the globe.
You’re spellbound by Scratch, aren’t you?
And you have questions that I’m here to answer.
Scratch coding is suitable for which age group?
Any age-group!
No matter what age is your child, they can make animations and block codes on Scratch.
Wait, is your kid in kindergarten?
Uh-Oh!
Scratch Junior is there to teach ’em coding young (5–7 years).
Let’s get done with your biggest concern.
“My child is too young. I don’t think it’s the right time for them to learn coding.”
To burst your bubble, 72% of parents in the UK want their kids to start coding in elementary school.
Coding opens many doors for your child, not only to an IT job. It is a way of life.
These super cool benefits of coding will change your mind.
1. Storytelling Skills
What is your favorite childhood story?
Mine is Cinderella (Though you didn’t ask.)
What is common in all of them?
A hero (or heroine in mine), a villain (or stepmother), a plot (poor girl meets Prince), a setting (kingdom), and a lesson.
Does it all happen together?
No!
One scene follows the other, in a sequence.
Coding is the sequence you follow when you write a computer program. Like all the pieces of a story put together make a complete story, all the blocks of code put together make a program.
Learning how to code make your child a better storyteller.
2. Foster Creativity
Creativity is the ability to find new ideas and solutions to problems.
So how does coding make your kid creative?
Imagining a story ignites your kid’s creative streak. They create innovative programs and games.
Creative kids earn and learn better when they grow up.
3. Logical Thinking
Coding sharpens your kids’ brains and makes them smart logical thinkers. It makes them Ask Why?
They learn to analyze a problem and come up with a solution.
4. Consistency and Persistence
“Practice makes a man perfect.”
I’m sure you must have said this to your child more than once. Or they must have heard it from their Math teacher.
I always told parents in the PTM — “Make them practice daily” — when they said their kid scores low in Math.
Consistency also increases productivity.
When your child consistently practices Math problems, they become accurate and faster.
But not everyone can be consistent in life.
More than 60% of people give up before getting to their goals.
How good are you at following your new year’s resolutions?
Coding develops a ‘never give up’ attitude. Once your kid learns how to code, they don’t stop.
5. Algorithmic Thinking
I know you want to know what IS an algorithm before I tell you how coding builds your kid’s algorithmic thinking.
An algorithm is a list of steps for a computer to follow. Like you follow your favorite master chef’s recipe to bake a cake. It helps the computer solve problems and do things you want it to do.
So why should your kid have algorithmic thinking?
It’s the thought process they need to create computer programs and innovations in the future.
Even if they don’t want to become software engineers when they grow up, computational thinking skills will make them fast, efficient, and creative problem-solvers.
ScratchJr wins among all other coding apps in helping kids express themselves better.
6. Self-learning
Do you have to push your child to study?
Most of the coding is done by self-learning. Kids take interest in studies and feel responsible for their growth and learning. 65% of coders said they learned to program on their own, in the 2018 HackerRank survey.
7. Social and Emotional Learning
I know you want your child’s overall development. You want them to be ethical, moral, happy, and kind humans, not just smart.
Don’t you?
Coding grows your child into a socially (with patience, empathy) and emotionally (with positivity, gratitude) developed human. There’s research proof here. Don’t blindly believe every word I say.
This is how you can start-
Coding isn’t a cakewalk for anyone, let alone children. But it surely is beneficial for their growth and learning.
Start small. Lead them to think logically and creatively. Give them puzzles and story prompts. Ask them to write stories. If and once they gain interest, (they will, which kid doesn't like games and stories?), introduce them to coding.
More tips for you:
By Manika Pant
A Content Writer, EdTechxpert and Education Enthusiast! Manika Pant is a trained teacher, having done B.Ed. and M.A. Education. She has 8+ years of school teaching experience. Creator of ‘Learning with M’, a Math educational YouTube channel, Manika is a content creator in the morning, a nature lover in the evening, and a poet by night.
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