Important Tips to Follow Before Your kid start Coding

This Pandemic has taught us many things including how to follow certain guidelines for better results and precaution is better than cure. Taking these learning further let us discuss some tips that parents should follow before your kid start coding, so that, you could avoid making common mistakes and can see improved and better performance of your kids. The initial stage is most important as it creates excitement or boredom among kids for the new lesson they will be learning. Remember all the silly reasons some kids give for not going to school whereas some love to go to school. Do you know Why? Why there is so much difference? The reason behind this is incomplete or less understanding of the environment your kid need for nourishing. Don't worry we are here to help you with this. We will be discussing various tips that will help you understand what can you follow to help your kid explore coding in a better way.

Tip #1- Research more

Research doesn't mean searching on google for the best coding language for my kid and work is done. You need to follow certain steps and assure that you are going in the right direction. Let us understand this in a better way:- we all know every child is special and needs a different type of attention, one side some kids could love games whereas others like reading books. What do you think we should suggest both of the same types of languages? No, if kids love gaming they will be more excited to learn languages such as java on which many popular games have been created. Let us understand this tip step by step:

Talk to your child - Try to understand their point of view. Don't feel they are kids they don't understand what is good or bad for them, don't forget they are the one who helps you in changing your profile photo and whatnot? So give them chance to express themselves.
Read about coding - Most of the parents might be wondering we are not coders, we don't need to learn to code. let me make you understand this with an example- Whenever your child asks you something conceptual don't you read about it before making them understand? It's simple if you can't understand what's written then how can you expect your child to understand that. Thus read about it, understand it, choose wisely. Like, it is suggested that kids without any knowledge of coding should start with visual coding like blockly for better understanding.

Tip #2 - Practical Knowledge is a must

One most important fault in our education system is focusing more on theoretical than practical knowledge which results in less deep knowledge. We should understand the importance of practice over theory; Imagine you are learning driving, you read all the instructions on how to use breaks, handbrakes, etc but will this knowledge be impactful without any practical implementation? Of course not, likewise Coding is not theoretical subject practice is a must. CuriousJr helps you in getting this practical knowledge, Enroll in our free course by downloading our application. We focus on making roots strong by learning by doing. Practicing more will boost their confidence which could help them in their overall growth and we all know how much important confidence is for a successful life.

Tip #3 - Make it Entertaining

Kids study almost six and seven subjects each year and coding adds as another one but what if we make it entertaining rather than counting as another subject? Yes, this is possible gamified coding is the best solution for this. It helps kids in learning without getting bored. Understand it like this, do kids get bored of games? No, never you have to pull the phone from their hands what if they are playing while learning? Blockly games provide games like puzzle, Maze, Bird, and turtle help to build the concepts. According to some studies, We can conclude that it is quite easy to get kids to try programming but challenging to keep them engaged and we all know being consistent is the key to learn new things thus making it entertaining can help us in engaging the kids.

Tip #4 - Examples can do wonders

Whenever we learn anything, we always try to understand it better with the help of examples. Kids tend to understand more when given examples. Not going too far, you can notice the use of examples in my blog only whenever I explain anything I try to relate them with examples because it helps us in getting a practical and relative approach. For example, we taught kids the concept of loops. We said a loop is a command used to repeat a part of code until the desired process is complete. But if we are not explaining the terms with examples then, we are just saying words rather than explaining it. Now if I explained the same concept as It is easy to make one pizza. But what if you need 100 pizzas for a house party? Instead of doing the same steps over and over again, you would like to prefer to do it once and have it automatically repeated until 100 pizzas were made. This will make your task simple. Isn't it easier now? Thus examples are a source of better explanation always try to use them.

Tip #5 Encourage Exploration

Don't give them everything on plates, let them explore something on their own. Remember excitement leads to exploration. Similarly in Coding, when we tell a little and let them explore more this will directly help to make them explore their curiosity to know more. Let us understand this with a better example, Tell your kid about what is loops? and tell them to explore other areas like how to use them, why to use them, and where to use them? in loops by themselves. How can you encourage exploration?

Asking them questions. So they become curious about solutions or answers which will encourage them to explore.
Tell them more, you must be wondering that if we will tell them how they will explore on their own? Tell them more because this will help them to understand the concept more and this will lead to curiosity to understand more.

Tip #6 Aware them about Technical news

It may sound boring but it can do wonders, by technical news I mean Which technology is introduced, Which one is ruling the world, How coding is becoming part of our life, Which robot introduced for helping humans? how a small chip store a lot of data? and many more. The main purpose of this tip is that kids should know how coding is surrounding them in every area, and Why it is important to learn as if they will understand this it will help them in future perspective. How can you make them aware of technical news?

Let them read about technology, if kids are interested in reading this could become their habit.
If they are not interested in reading then they can watch the news to get knowledge about different technology. Just remember being aware is the most important thing.

Tip #7 Step by Step method

Yes, this might be slow but better for learning. Let us directly comprehend this with an example, you are learning a new thing let it be baking cake. What would you like for guidance a one time whole instructions or step by step instructions? Of course, step by step method helps in better understanding but how this can be implemented in Coding? Let me help you out by explaining with an example; Mostly when kids start coding we usually start with visual coding right? Why? because we know the start is one of the important phases but it's high time we should consider each phase equally important. In coding we could take small steps starting with visual coding -> practice basic coding language -> more advanced version -> practice advance version.

Conclusion

Coding is a buzz word, everyone wants their kids to learn to code but we should not forget you are not in a rat race. We can take some preventive measures for better results, here are few tips that parents could follow before their kids start their journey in coding, Research is the first step don't go further without understanding your needs and your level of understanding. secondly, Anything entertaining is always best for kids as it helps them to understand in a better way. So, try to make it entertaining. Third, we should always consider giving practical knowledge a priority as it strengthens the roots, and last but not least examples, help us to relate with the outer world. Parents following these tips could see better results in the coding journey of their kids. At CuriousJr, we prefer to teach coding with the videos following a gamified approach as they provide students with a fun and interactive way to learn coding concepts. Many youth coding clubs and academies are starting to move in this direction.

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Happy coding!