[frewper]

Originally Posted by Oxy

Now that his school is going to wind up in a couple of days, and the next academic year is only going to begin in June, my son has started pestering me to get him enrolled in an instructor led coding or robotics course. He does not want Udemy/Coursera sessions.

Anyone here in the same boat? Which ones are decent? A random Google search only leads to Whitehat Junior. Is that any good?

Originally Posted by subraiyr

Same here...My son, 10 years old, wants to learn to code. The point is that his besties are learning to code and he wants to join them. Looking for potential classes if any which he can enroll in.

He is musically inclined and has joined Piano lessons (Western from Trinity School of Music) and is learning Carnatic from a music teacher based in Kerala. I don't want to put too much pressure on him, but with the summer vacations coming in, I think 1 more class is just fine. In addition, he will do swimming and maybe another sport as well. Currently, a couple of seniors are teaching basketball to the kids in the apartment twice a week

Please ohh please dont let him learn to code just because others are doing it. Others got into the hype doesnt mean you have to.

Please let him be a child. If he really wants to learn code please buy him a book not an online course. I have spent 12 years in the IT industry and 4 years in mechanical and I can tell I did not learn from some online course. Books taught me more.

He can starting learning code in any age of his life. Any field he wishes to start learning he can learn at any age and he can master it in a few so why spoil his childhood.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Oxy

Thanks Samurai. He is 10.

I ensured that my older son learned 4 life skills that I didn't have at 10. He could swim, cycle, skate and ride a horse by age 10.

I didn't get him a laptop and mobile until he was 16. Now he is 21 and last week he won Bangalore inter-college coding contest using C++, and that is not even his first computer language. He learned coding from college and online tutorials. So don't fall for this coding for toddlers scam from WHJ.

[mayukh42]

At 8-10 years age, the only coding language I was taught at school was LOGO. It was a graphical drawing language, where the commands would just draw shapes on the screen.

For the next 5 years till board exams, the language that followed was BASIC, a very simple to learn language that can start with just addition to up to a full fledged ICSE project. And the only computer I had access to was the one in school computer lab, allowed 45 mins twice a week.

LOGO is simple enough to put across the point that computers work as per instructions one at a time, and big enough to keep the child engaged with puzzles/ logical thinking.

In hindsight, I can confirm that there was never a need of anything more advanced at that stage; that slow-paced exposure to computers and programming never caused any issue with understanding advanced concepts like C internals etc. later

As someone has already pointed out, what is important is understanding of logic and critical thinking, everything else can be learnt on demand with that strong foundation.

[Oxy]

It seems that a few folks here think that I am forcing coding on my son.

I am not.

He is fairly good at Scratch block based coding, and has requested me to present him an Arduino board / Robotics classes for his upcoming birthday next week.

Thanks a ton for all the suggestions/feedback though. Seriously love the TBHP family.

[PradoGdr88]

Hello World!

Yes pun intended, I code for a living and I code as a passion. Give your son an assignment which is fun, simple and google search achievable. And if he is able to do it give him one more and if he is still with you ask him to google 'Kautilya Katariya'.

And if he is still interested after the videos on this kid its no more peer pressure but passion.

If he is clear with why he wants to code?
What does he intend to do with his coding skill?

Shout out over here and then I can suggest you the way ahead.

Note: Kids these days are amazing but to finish a marathon you start with a passion or a burning desire.

[autohead666]

Coding needs logic, logic needs reasoning and reasoning comes with maturity. I am not sure how old your son is, but I will advice to stay off Whitehat JR. If at all he wants to learn coding, better to check on youtube. It will save you from getting ripped off.

[Dodge_Viper]

Sorry for going against the tide here, but at the age of 10, a kid has much better things to do instead of coding. Coding is not much of a rocket science and can be learnt at later stage as well.