Essential Tools for Teaching Children Software Development

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

It goes without saying that you need a computer of some sort if you wish to teach children things like coding. All you need is a standard computer or laptop in order to teach your child coding. Besides the hardware, you probably need a few pre-made lessons or tools in order to make the teaching process run a little more smoothly. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Codemonkey.com

With the CodeMonkey system, they have coding games for kids free. There is a range of different lessons and games that suit people of all ages and of all skill levels. The difference is in regards to how the information is presented. The team at CodeMonkey has tried to stay clear of the more sterile and clinical side of coding, and present their games, challenges, and lessons as if they were games themselves. The bold colors, the graphically generated cartoons, and the overall aesthetic help to introduce people to coding in a very gentle way.

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YouTube

If you are looking for free introductions to coding, then YouTube is full of information. It is up to you to check out as many videos as possible to find the ones that will suit your child the best. In essence, you can direct how your child learns by choosing what they are exposed to through the YouTube videos.

Even if a single creator works well, but you don’t like certain lessons on offer, you can make it so your child doesn’t see those lessons during the early learning process. There are plenty of reasons to teach your child coding, and even if YouTube doesn’t become your “go-to” platform for coding lessons, it may still offer a nice introduction to coding and/or programming concepts since it can display them in visually creative ways that are difficult to reproduce in real life.

Wibit.Net

This is preferably a website for older children. It is an odd duck because it has very child-friendly visuals, including giving each coding language its own cartoon mascot. Plus, it offers absolute basics absolute beginner lessons, having starter lessons that even include where to get the free software needed to render your coding.

The reason this website is an odd duck is that it can be used to teach kids and absolute beginners about a variety of coding languages, but the lessons go very far down the rabbit hole. By lesson 50 in a course, they will be throwing some hyper-advanced stuff at you that even seasoned programmers may struggle to keep up with. It is possible that after a few lessons, you may need to direct your child to other content before Wibit gets too advanced for your child.

NotePad++

Even if you are not planning on teaching your child anything, even if you are an amateur coder, you should still consider downloading NotePad++ just for its hundreds and hundreds of uses. After just a few uses, you will see how it is a great asset for any computer or laptop.

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Its primary use is to allow you to write code, and it helps arrange and format your code, helps you identify errors or missing parts, to identify pieces of information, and so forth. Yet, it has so many functions that you will probably find a use for it in other areas of your life, from arranging information to fixing other people’s mods for games. Plus, it only runs on donations, so you won’t have to pay a subscription fee.