Sometimes people feel stressed about computer coding. Parents feel a burning need to ensure their kids have the knowledge and skills that will be assets in the future job market, while children want to live up to these expectations and absorb the skills their parents deem important.
But childhood is all about having fun, and right now, kids are in dire need of some pleasure. Please keep on reading to hear more about how online coding classes put fun at the centre of learning.
Parents who have seen their child glued to the screen playing video games know what kind of hold games have on children. The best programming courses in Toronto for kids revolve around building video games, harnessing kids’ attraction to games and leveraging it to help them learn.
When kids have a goal that they’re strongly motivated to achieve, nothing can keep them from learning. When they are finished creating the game, they can play and share it with friends, giving them a sense of reward and accomplishment that can be hard to duplicate.
Plus, the best online coding programs embed gamification concepts in their lessons, so the same things that hook children on to playing games keep them engaged in learning.
Any subject matter can be made exciting by teachers who are genuinely excited by it. By the same token, dynamic subjects can be made dull by dry, uninspired teachers.
Look for a program that hires young teachers who studied computer science and grew up playing video games as kids. They’ll have the subject matter expertise and first-hand experience to teach the material and make it exciting.
Video games can provide some of the most enjoyable parts of childhood for many kids, who will look back years later with warm nostalgia at this innocent period of their lives. Teachers who experienced the same thing as the students in their sessions will have contagious enthusiasm.
Teachers who skew on the young side also have more relevant and timely experience taking STEM subjects and navigating the job market, so students have a great source of practical knowledge.
Finally, the best classes have a low ratio of students per teacher. Some industry leaders have a maximum of four-to-one, so every student gets easy access to their instructor.
Ideally, there shouldn’t be a minimum number of students needed to enroll, so sessions run even if there’s one lone student, giving parents predictability and reliability when scheduling extracurriculars. After all, when kids learn real coding languages that professionals use every day, like Python, Java, JavaScript, C#, and C++, they’ll need the help and ample support of experienced teachers.
When classes are small, they’ll never need to compete with their peers for their teacher’s attention.
The rush to provide children with the skills they’ll need one day to be independent doesn’t have to be stressful. In fact, it can be downright fun. Keep the above lessons in mind, and your child will look forward to their weekly online coding class.
Photo: Ketut Subiyanto via Pexels
