Basic Coding for Kids
Children have more options than we do to move forward in life but few are as funny and flexible as coding. In today’s fast-paced world of technology, programming is no longer a science for the elite, but a vital skill that everyone should learn.That’s why coding for kids is becoming increasingly important.
Teaching children basic programming, especially from a young age, opens the door to great opportunities for their development and success.
Why Should Kids Learn to Code?
Because, why not? It’s not just about the growing worldwide demand for programmers. Learning to code will positively affect children’s personality and mental state. To list some of its advantages:
Increasing Creativity
Coding requires repeated experiments. The trial-and-error process will provide children with the opportunity to use their creativity.
Better Math Skills
Coding basically consists of solving mathematical and logical problems. This helps children to love mathematics, which the are afraid of in their education years, and to use it in real life situations.
Development of Problem-Solving Capabilities
Because coding often involves making mistakes until you get it right, kids will learn that there is always more than one way to complete any task. At the same time, this will help children learn from their mistakes.
Academic Writing Performance
It supports coding, layout and planning skills. It gives children the ability to organize their thoughts and improves their writing skills.
Perhaps it would be wiser for children to provide tools where they can make fun games and learn basic coding at the same time, rather than giving them coding lessons directly where they grapple with heavy algorithms.
In this article, we will share a series of game development tools that we have compiled for children. Many of these tools are free, and the overall goal is to love and teach coding for children.
10 Coding Tools for Kids
1- Pygame
Pygame consists of a set of Python modules designed for coding video games. It is extremely portable and can run on almost any platform and operating system. Pygame is free. It offers an environment where you can develop any type of game you want, including commercial games. It is extremely easy to use.
Some games developed using Pygame have reached the finals of the Independent Game Festival and the Australian Game Festival. And again, more than 660 games produced with this tool have been published on various websites.
2- GDevelop
GDevelop is basically a free and open-source game engine that can create 2D PC and Mobile games as well as HTML 5 games playable in browsers. Created by Florian Rival,uses event-based visual programming.
Due to its open-source code and ease of use, has found use in game education from primary school to university courses. It has also been used by educators and researchers to create learning-oriented games.
3- Kodu GameLab
Kodu is a type of visual programming tool used to teach basic coding using blocks and images.
The point where it differs from other projects in this field is that it provides a 3D simulation environment. Kodu Gamelab has also been used as an educational learning tool in selected schools and learning centers.
The first version was published by Microsoft in 2009. It is also suitable for use by children who want to enter the programming world with its extremely fun and easy to use.
4- Ct.js
Ct.js is a free, open-source game engine that aims to make learning programming fun and facilitate game development with its visual tools, good documentation, and flexible, modular library.
In areas where ct.js, which provides very good performance in browsers and desktop environments, is insufficient, any JavaScript code or library can be added to the system.
5- Scratch
Scratch is a program where children can develop their imagined designs, make games, animations and applications by highlighting their creativity. It has been developed especially for the use of children between the ages of 7-16.
Scratch has also been included in the education curriculum in many countries. Scratch, which provides great benefits for learning and developing algorithm logic, is widely used.
Scratch helps children develop their abilities such as problem solving, thinking of alternative ways, producing solutions to problems that may arise, and collaborative learning.
6- Code Combat
codecombat.com aims to teach by playing games rather than making a game. Combining the text-based coding and RPG game world, Code Combat offers an immersive learning experience through a fun game that you can access with your internet browser.
The aim of the game is to give your character the right commands to complete various mazes, puzzles and other tasks by solving them.
For children the free version is extremely sufficient. The free version of Code Combat provides an in-depth introduction to computer coding science and consists of 39 levels that teach kids basic syntax, parameters, arrays, arguments, loops, and variables.
7- Code Monster
Code Monster aims to teach children JavaScript programming through fun and interactive episodes with a cute, blue monster. It has a design consisting of two boxes, where the child sees the code in one box and the result of the code is displayed in the other box. It consists of more than 50 chapters.
8- Blocky Games
Blockly Games is another platform that integrates coding with gameplay to deliver a useful programming experience.
Blockly offers a variety of games that take the approach of teaching kids how to code by offering interactive challenges. These games include puzzles, mazes, music, movies and lots of birds. The purpose of the platform is to have kids write or drag and drop code blocks to solve a puzzle, build a story, or hit targets.
Children can instantly see the results of their coding text, which will help them understand and visualize exactly what they can build.
9- Stencyl
Stencyl a kind of game engine inspired by Scratch.
It aims to develop games that kids can publish on many platforms such as iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows, HTML5, Linux and Flash. In this way, children will both learn to code and experience the feeling of success with the games they publish.
In addition, Stencyl has a curriculum on its website that teachers can use in their classrooms. Alongside the free version of Stencyl that supports web publishing, there are paid professional plans available so that if your child is serious about it, they can also broadcast their games on other platforms.
10- Gamestar Mechanic
Gamestar Mechanic uses game-based tasks to help programmers learn game design to code and share their video games. Free to play at home and at school, this game is a popular choice in Information and Computer technology classrooms and its audience is growing by the day.
In this article, we have compiled game tools that children can use to learn coding. While the options above are excellent tools for venturing through the coding world, it may be a better idea to use multiple programs at once and avoid creating a routine.
Adopting multiple ways of learning rather than using a single platform or method to learn will help children focus and gain versatility.
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