Tag Archives: Kids

Skills

The Importance of Teaching Your Child to Take Risks

As a parent, you want to protect your child from as much as you possibly can. As a result, you may hesitate to allow them to take risks, or try to soften the blow if a risk they take doesn’t turn out in their favor. At CodeREV Kids, we actually think it’s important to let your kids take risks. Why? Read on to learn.

Teach kids to take risks while you’re still here to protect them

If you try to shield your child from ever having to take a risk, you’re taking a pretty big risk yourself – the risk that once they’re out of the house they’ll take those risks and you won’t be there to help them.

For example, let’s say your child wants to try out for a competitive singing group. You may worry that they don’t have the experience to go head to head with other students in their grade and you may not think their voice is quite as good as it needs to be. You don’t have to tell your child this – let them learn on their own. Will they be disappointed that they don’t make the singing group? Sure, but they’ll also learn that rejection isn’t as bad as they may have feared.

Have some control over the risks they take

In addition to the risk that your child will grow up afraid to take a risk, you also have the risk that your child will grow up and take severe risks because they’ve never learned the difference between a minor and major risk. For this reason, it makes sense to let your child take a risk today when you have some control over it.

A risk can be as simple as trying something new

Don’t think of a risk as something that could harm your child – just think of it as trying something new. For example, we offer a range of tech camps for kids of all ages. If your child has never taken part in something like this, then they may be afraid. They may be afraid to risk failing.

Teach them that it’s okay to fail. The important thing is to try it in the first place. Our tech camps are a great way to teach your kids problem solving skills, to help them make friends, and to build a strong technology background that can serve them for the rest of their lives.

Coding Education

Customizing and Engaging Young Coders

Jobs are a very enticing argument and/or motivation for coding education for adults, but young coders need more hands-on engagement. For example, consider the impact of robotics. News 6 takes a look at this in a recent article titled “Muskogee Students Learn Coding, Robotics After School.”

Tony Russell of News 6 writes, “It’s a first for Muskogee Public Schools. Starting next week, more than 80 students at Robertson Junior High School will get a chance to do more extra curricular activities after school. When the bell rings around three, students who don’t play sports at Alice Robertson Junior High School go home. That gives them about two and a half hours to do whatever they want while they wait for their parents to come home from work. So the school decided to ask for grant money from the Oklahoma Department of Education to keep the students learning after school. Austin Robinett, an eighth grader, is signing up for the program in hopes of getting hands-on learning after class.  He and his fellow students believe the program is needed in Muskogee. ‘You have a whole bunch of kids who have nothing to do after school, so they go out and do whatever they want to do with their friends and go get in trouble,’ he said. ‘I think it’s a great opportunity for kids to learn something that would actually benefit their future and their career.’ ‘It’s really important because it gives us something to do after school,’ said Phuong Ngyuen, a seventh-grade student.”

Or for another look at engagement, consider a recent article for CBS DC titled “Maryland Coding Contest Encourages Students to Pursue Computer Science.” According to the author of the article, “An hour of computer coding might be the first step toward a well-paying career in computer science. That’s the idea behind the Hour of Code challenge happening across the country and in Maryland Public Schools. According to Code.org, Maryland currently has nearly 20,000 open computing jobs, but only 2,000 computer science students graduating from the state’s colleges and universities. ‘We are not graduating enough students in computers science fields to fill those jobs,’ says Cindy Hasslebring, special assistant to the state superintendent of schools. The average salary for a computer science occupation in Maryland is $98,593. To encourage more students to learn this profitable skill, the Maryland Hour of Code contest will give a $10,000 technology award to a public school that provides an hour of coding to each of its students during Computer Science Education Week, Dec. 7-13.”

When it comes to youth coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, we offer a customized coding education that focuses on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages.

Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized. Even though we are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our classes today!

Coding Education

Customizing Coding Education to Reach Kids

It’s one thing to recognize that there is a major need for coders in the workforce. Developing an effective plan of action is another. Institutions throughout the country are making an effort to inspire young coders through a variety of methods. Consider a recent article for NPR titled “Federal Student Loans Expand To Cover Some Coding Boot Camps.”

Meg Anderson of NPR writes, “Starting soon, students will be able to use federal loans to pay for certain coding boot camps, the immersive web development courses that promise to make students into programming experts in just a few months. The experimental program will allow traditional accredited colleges to partner with coding boot camps and other short-term certification programs. Because they’re attached to colleges, the U.S. Department of Education will be able to evaluate their effectiveness. Colleges can begin applying today. The price tag for coding boot camps can be as much as $20,000, but the allure of high paying tech jobs has attracted an estimated 16,000 students this year alone. Enrollment in these programs is soaring, but the hefty cost means camps have been popular mostly among those privileged enough to afford the risk.”

Delaware Online also takes a look at ways to reach the youth in a recent article titled “Delaware native makes coding kid-friendly.” Scott Goss of Delaware Online writes, “Peter Kinney played a lot of video games while growing up near Townsend. Perhaps a little too much, if you ask his mother. But Kinney’s love of gaming – particularly strategy games – seems to have paid off. The 25-year-old Charter School of Wilmington graduate is now the lead programmer at Digital Dream Labs, a Pittsburgh-based educational technology company he co-founded in 2012. This month, the startup released the final version of Puzzlets, an innovative gaming platform that includes a downloadable app designed to teach basic computer programming skills to children ages 6 and older. The game, called Cork the Volcano, is similar to familiar titles, like Super Mario Bros., in that it involves a character avoiding obstacles to advance to the next level.”

When it comes to youth coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. Our lessons focus on computational thinking, which encompasses a wide variety of programming languages and concepts. These lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. Thus, the entire curriculum is customized.

We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

Sign up for one of our fall classes today!

Coding Education

Seeing Rewards for Coding Early

When we talk about coding, the conversation is often in the context of the future. We discuss filling the need for technology-related jobs. The conversation veers to a competition with young coders in other countries. However, sometimes, it’s most effective to stay in the present. Viacom takes a look at how some students are seeing immediate coding rewards in a recent article titled “Look What These Girls Can Do: A Summer of Coding Wraps at Viacom.”

Stuart Winchester of Viacom writes, “This summer at Viacom’s New York City headquarters, 20 girls learned that coding can do exactly that, creating these experiences with skills learned through Girls Who Code (GWC), an organization built to inspire, educate and equip girls with the computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities. Last week, these girls gathered with their families and teachers, Viacom staff and GWC staff to demo these final projects and celebrate a remarkable summer. ‘From speakers to mentors to my fellow coders, we all believe in the Girls Who Code message – that females can and will achieve greatness in the STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] fields,’ said Sejal Mehra, who represented her class with remarks. ‘Over the summer, we not only learned how to code, but have also made 22 new best friends. I know for a fact that when we leave this week, our friendships will grow with our coding abilities.’”

The Roanoke Times reports on a coding competition with governmental implications in a recent article titled “Coding competition: Time running out to try to help government.” Yann Ranaivo of the Roanoke Times writes, “A competition for coders across the state to build and submit software aimed at making Virginia government more efficient and transparent is entering its final keyboard clicks. The software submission, with a Sept. 2 deadline, is part of Datathon 2015 — a competition that lets coders use open state data to build apps for platforms that include the Internet, personal computers and smartphones. Top projects will be chosen during regional events throughout the state before they are presented at a final event in Richmond, according to the competition’s website. The person or persons responsible for the winning entry will meet with the evaluation panel with a goal of launching the idea as a business. The data participants must use for their applications can be found at data.virginia.gov, where they can find datasets on education, agriculture, elections, health and human resources and public safety. Participants are asked to use at least one dataset. Submissions, according to the site, must include a paragraph explaining the app’s purpose, functions, intended audience and problems it aims to address. They also must include a text description of the app, a narrated video demonstration of the app and a link to the software.”

When it comes to youth coding education, no one provides a better, customized coding education than CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, we emphasized computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages. Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise.

We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.We offer tracks focusing on everything from robotics to website development, to app making.

If you’re looking to give your child the foundation he/she needs to be a successful coder, sign up for one of our afterschool programs today!

Coding Curriculum, Coding Education

Kids Code the Darndest Things

When you give children some space for creativity, it’s amazing what they can do. Consider a recent article for the Huffington Post titled “These Kids Spent 8 Hours Coding And Broke A Guinness World Record.”

Rebecca Klein of the Huffington Post writes, “July 30 was a big day for over 1,000 members of Boys and Girls Clubs in the Seattle area: They learned how to code, and they broke a Guinness world record. A total of 1,337 students gathered at the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, for a free coding camp that was also an attempt to break the record for the ‘most people trained in computer programming in eight hours.’ Microsoft approached Guinness when it had the idea to host the marathon training session. Guinness World Records set a benchmark of 1,300 students who had to take part, Microsoft representative Katie Fazzolari told The Huffington Post. The kids participated in coding activities, like learning how to do commands, and had to create a game. They had to demonstrate that they had finished their tasks for their time to count for the world record.”

Cool Mom Tech also highlights youth coding creativity in a recent article titled “9 awesomely cool coding projects for kids using the Dot and Dash robots from Wonder Workshop.” Liz of Cool Mom Tech writes, “Recently, I wrote about how totally in love I am with the Dot and Dash Robots from Wonder Workshop. So it makes me extra happy that they have joined us as as our newest Cool Mom Tech sponsor because, well, we all adore them! (Also, so does every kid who comes over and begs to play with ‘those cool blue robot things’ that have a permanent home in our living room.) What’s even better is that the free Blockly app (iOS and Android) that pairs with the robots has a new update every single week, meaning it’s constantly packed with tons of new puzzles and playful projects that are actually doable without an engineering degree, thanks to an easy drag-and-drop visual coding platform that’s perfect for kids about 8 and up. Maybe a little younger with your help.”

When it comes to youth coding education, nothing gives your child the opportunity to grow quite like CodeRev Kids. Our customized coding education emphasizes computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages. Our lessons build upon one another and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise.

We are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, but we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, our students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology. With us, children can explore coding through robotics, building apps, designing websites, creating games, and much more.

If you are looking to give your child a quality coding education, look no further than CodeRev Kids!