How soon to start coding?
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Today’s post will be slightly different from my usual them of “life and times of a product manager”. And it was inspired by my daughter.
The picture above is of my daughter when she was about 2 years old. She started drawing on the walls of our house with her crayon set. Her artwork was absolutely gibberish to us, but she explained that there was a car and a baby shark in her masterpiece. We understood that she has own creative thoughts and her own language and appreciated her uses of different colors.
In the digital age, whenever we hear the “Codes”, we understand the computer languages that we use on a daily basis but don’t mostly understand, such as C, C++, Java, PHP, Swift, and many more. Whenever we hear the phrase “Coding”, we imagine a person sitting on a chair and writing gibberish on a computer screen comes to mind, with years of practices and a college degree.
Similar to a programmer’s code will look absolutely gibberish to you once you see the code below. Fun fact it is a part of the backend of Google search.
Interestingly, coding is not just about learning a computer programming language and how to write lines of codes. There are so many advantages of coding that support the development amongst growing children.
“I taught myself how to program computers when I was a kid, bought my first computer when I was 10, and sold my first commercial program when I was 12”
Advantages of teaching coding to children
Creativity and logic building
Learning to code allows the coders to be creative. Coding also helps to apply different logics to solve a single problem. Learning to code at an early age allows our growing children to be more creative and this can benefit them to apply their creativity to solve an issue.
Makes a team player
Students get the opportunity of building projects as teams. They have to communicate with each other and this can also help them to get involved in project management in an early age. Project management can help with communication, compromise, discussion and negotiation between the players.
Influence to learn more
Allowing your children to solve an issue their way influences them to learn new ways, and logic. In a way solving one issue gives them more opportunity to learn new things. This also allows children to learn patient and observant.
The ability to understand and share
It highly in children, when they learn about something, they share with you and other. This improves their communication skills and develops them to understand different situation. Sharing also allows them to improve their presentation skills.
Boosting confidence
Once they get to solve an issue, their confidence is boosted to try another issue solving. This way you an introduce to learning materials for them to look into.
How to teach your child coding
It not going to work if you give your 2 years old a book on Java programming for Dummies. But there are a lot of materials in your time that can help them to learn more about coding.
Using Toys
I tried something like this on my daughter when she was just old enough to stand up herself.
A very simple toy to start learning about logics. It took her a long time to get it right but she did. After this we tried the ones with the Alphabets and this allowed her to learn to put the shapes in their rightful holes faster but in the process, she also picked up the English alphabets as well.
Now that she just turned 3, I came across this toy called “Code-a-Pillar”. This toy allows kids from 3-6 years of age to learn about directional logics, solving obstructions in the path.
But with toys, you can allow your kids to learn about coding and other materials faster and they have fun in the process.
There are so many toys available that can help your kids to learn coding at a very early age. The next device I am interested in looking in to is called Cozmo, a robot that listens to you and builds structures with blocks. Face it, I am more interested in it than my daughter. The point is there are so many toys that will allow your kids to learn more than just pushing a car or just dressing up a doll. I read this article and this helped me decide the type of toys that I must introduce my kid. Please give it a read.
https://www.gearhungry.com/coding-toys-for-kids/
Programming languages
I have seen my cousin influence his 5 years old learn programming in a fun way. He used Scratch, a programming language designed by the great minds from MIT specific for kids. Using scratch, I have seen my nephew design a game. And he used logics very creatively that we have to brainstorm for days, at this age.
Arduino, the world’s leading open-source hardware and software ecosystem, is also involved in creating kids smarter and more involved in coding. They have projects those which they have designed for kids to enjoy and learn with, please give this a read as well, Arduino Kids.
There are so many resources out there, like Python, Blockly, JavaScript, Lua (Roblox) and more programming languages out there those which are tailor designed to get the attention of children. Give this article a read, Top 9 Kids Coding Languages of 2020
