Top 5 Free Coding Programs for Kids

Coding Programs have become a trend in the field of education. Today, children ages 8 to 16 are now involved in the art of technology through an integrated user experience in software applications. The current technology offers coding programs as a portal to children’s innovation in transforming ideas into simple websites and games like Minecraft Mods with creativity, problem-solving skills, and utmost self-confidence.

A child’s curiosity should not be a dead-end in a series of questions. Rather, a child should get engaged with the real-time experiences to build insights in basic coding program through these Top 5 Coding Programs for Kids.

Coding Program and Its Benefits

In simple words, coding is an act of writing to program a computer for a particular task. If the coding is right, then the computer responds well. As a general rule, coding should not be confused with programming.

Coding for kids takes another level of learning. It develops a child’s creativity, problem-solving skills, and confidence. In a closer look, a child’s creative expressions manifest through graphics and storytelling enhanced through sound logic which holistically boosts his confidence with integrated coding experience.  Nevertheless, the skill of coding a program will be an edge for a child’s future professional reference.

Top 5 Free Coding Programs for Kids

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization providing free video tutorials and interactive exercises. It is dedicated to personalized learning to students who practice at their own pace in learning a particular topic. 

Learning coding at Khan Academy is convenient as it guides with interactive video tutorials and step-by-step challenges to practice newly learned concepts. Further, Khan Academy features “Hour of Code” — an activity designed on learning how to program drawings using JavaScript. 

Khan Academy can be downloaded on App Store and Google Play.

Code.org

Code.org is a website designed for K-12 users so students of all ages can benefit from their program.

Similar to Khan Academy, Code.org displays an interactive user interface through Hour of Code. Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. It provides activities in which kids can interact with other users through coding. Some activities in the Hour of Code are Minecraft Hour Code, Make a Flappy Game, and Create your own Google Logo.

Today, Code.org accounts for 40% of US student users and 1 million teachers with over 77 million projects created. Code.org can be accessed directly through their website.

Scratch

Scratch is a free and convenient block-based programming language dedicated to helping users across all ages to learn the basics of coding, although designed for kids aged 8 to 16 years old. Mitch Resnick, who leads the Scratch Team at the MIT Media Lab, explained in a blog post, “Our ultimate goal is to help all kids develop their thinking, develop their voices, and develop their identities.”

Scratch features Scratch Jr. —  a software application that covers interactive stories and games for young children ages 5 to 7. In the process, kids will learn to recognize basic programming problems, build projects, and express their ideas through creative designs.

Scratch can be accessed through their website only on laptop or desktop computers. Scratch Jr. is available at Amazon, Google Play, and App Store.

Code Monster

Crunchzilla created Code Monster, a googly-eyed blue monster who explains, commands, and questions a kid on his coding experience. He gives quizzes and asks kids to write his code. 

He is also responsible to give feedback when a kid inputs a code.

If a kid has mistakenly come up with the wrong code, Code Monster continues by example. Although a little time for kids to figure out where they went wrong, it is the best exercise for their analysis.

Code Monster can be accessed through their website.

Blockly Games

Blockly Games is a series of educational games developed by Blockly. All of its code is free and open-source in the Blockly library. Kids can learn the basics of coding without any at par experience in the coding program.

Blockly Games features seven components that allow a kid to enable his problem-solving and logic skills. “Movie” is one of the programming activities using mathematical equations. Here, kids use math to animate a movie. After a successful coding can be published for the world to watch. 

Blockly Games can be downloaded for offline use. It is free and customizable to meet your needs.

Key Takeaways 

Coding for kids develops a child’s creativity, problem-solving, and confidence. And as a learner, the skill of coding a program will be an edge for their future professional reference. Being said, a child should get engaged with real-time experience to build insights with the following free coding programs that can be freely accessed:

1. Khan Academy
2. Code.org
3. Scratch
4. Code Monster
5. Blockly Games

Don’t let a kid end his curiosity with questions. Feed them with experience.