Hi there! I have an 8-year-old son who's super excited about making his own video games and building robots or spaceships. He previously took coding classes at a local school, but I noticed the teacher mostly built a Roblox game for him while he just watched, which didn't really help him learn much. Now that we've moved, we're looking for new classes, but I also want to find some hands-on learning tools or resources that he can use at home at his own pace. He enjoyed the Osmo Coding starter kit when he was around 5, but I'm hoping to find something more suitable for his age now. Because he has ADHD, it's important that whatever we choose keeps him physically engaged while he learns. I'm really not knowledgeable about this area, so any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
4 Answers
You might find a lot of great online resources too! Physical classes are awesome, but websites and platforms like MIT's Scratch are perfect for kids. Scratch uses visual blocks for coding, making it easy to create games and animations. It’s very engaging and a great way to start learning programming concepts.
If he's interested in Roblox, there are books available that guide kids through making their own games there. He can work at his own pace with a resource like the "Roblox Game Development for Beginners" book. Just be cautious of the platform though; some parents have had issues with it due to safety concerns.
Have you considered Lego Mindstorms or similar kits? They’re great for hands-on learning. Also check out Makeblock's Bot Ranger or platforms like CodeMonkey and Scratch, which are fantastic for teaching kids programming in a fun way.
As a former game developer, I’d caution against Roblox due to some of its issues with user safety and monetization. However, starting with Scratch is a solid choice. It teaches the fundamentals of programming through visual coding. You could also explore Python later on, as it’s very user-friendly for beginners and has a wide range of resources available for learning how to make games.
Related Questions
How To: Running Codex CLI on Windows with Azure OpenAI
Set Wordpress Featured Image Using Javascript
How To Fix PHP Random Being The Same
Why no WebP Support with Wordpress
Replace Wordpress Cron With Linux Cron
Customize Yoast Canonical URL Programmatically