Weekly Online Coding Courses Are the Perfect Extracurricular for Kids

Introduction

All parents want what’s best for their kids, and usually, this means some type of split between preparing them for the future and having fun today. Often, what makes them ready for tomorrow’s workforce aren’t the most enjoyable activities.

Thankfully, that isn’t true when it comes to online coding classes! Let’s check out why weekly online coding classes are the perfect extracurriculars for kids.

The best online coding courses are convenient and flexible, making them a great way to master in-demand skills if you have other commitments you need to work around. Whether you plan to develop a career in programming or web design or just want to add an extra string in your bow, there are plenty of options to choose from.

The Best Online Coding Classes for Kids

It can be hard to decide where to start, so we’ve selected our own pick of the best online coding courses to help you narrow down your search. To compile our list, we’ve compared the curriculums, materials and student reviews offered by a range of online coding schools, focusing on the school as a whole rather than just one course. We’ve noted the pros and cons of each and provided links to their sites where you can find out more and see the full range of courses they offer.

Once you’ve chosen an online coding school, you might want to make sure you have one of the best monitors for programming to help minimise eyestrain while you study. We also have a guide to the best laptops for programming. And if you’re looking to gain new knowledge and skills in other high-demand areas, check out our essential online UX design course.

Video Games Are Fun

Your child will be genuinely excited to take online coding classes every week when the sessions revolve around creating video games. Leading programs teach kids of all levels of skill and experience how to program a video game they can play with friends and family.

The video game industry has eclipsed Hollywood in value as kids worldwide play and even create a wide range of video games that are more impressive and immersive than in years past. The best coding classes also use gamification dynamics in the classroom, so sessions engage kids as much as video games do!

Safe and Convenient

Parents have busy lives, too, and appreciate having one less place to drive their kids to after work. Online coding classes couldn’t be more convenient because kids take them at home!

Parents don’t need to worry about yet another commute across town or stress about their kid taking public transit safely.

Imparts Vital Knowledge

Parents enroll their kids in coding classes because they want them to learn to think and problem-solve like an engineer and absorb some STEM skills. It’s true that programming teaches kids many important secondary, indirect skills.

However, nothing replaces knowing how to write code in the specific languages powering today’s most popular apps, websites, and video games. Look for a program that teaches kids how to write code in languages such as:

• Python
• Java
• JavaScript
• C#
• C++

Teachers and employers down the road expect the young people they encounter to know these languages. Giving them a head start is vital.

Small Classes Matter

Parents want their children to absorb the material and enjoy learning it. Both things are hard when there are too many students packed into one class. Classroom management issues crop up as teachers struggle to teach distracted students.

Look for a program that limits class size to four students per session. At most, there’ll only be your child and three others. Industry leaders often don’t enforce a mandatory minimum, meaning the session will continue as scheduled even if your child is the only student.

Parents should appreciate that after years of disruptions. It isn’t right to book a class for a child only to cancel it because of conditions beyond their control, like when not enough other students enroll.

Childhood is the time for free play, yet parents need to ensure their kids are ready for what’s to come. When one activity can do both while being convenient and safe, that’s truly a great extracurricular. Whether your kid becomes a professional video game coder one day or works in an entirely different industry, they’ll always look back fondly on their time learning how to code online.

Conclusion

The modern world is powered by technology, and technology is powered by code. It’s often described as a ‘new literacy’, because so many businesses value coding as highly as reading and writing. By the time our children are ready to enter the world of work, coding will be all but essential.

And it’s never too soon to start learning. There are so many brilliant resources out there, many of them targeted specifically at kids. These online classes are fun and flexible, and a great way to turn your child’s screen time into something more productive — a starter pack for the modern, code-driven world.

There are plenty of brilliant options out there, and each online coding class has different strengths and weaknesses. Scratch, Blockly and LightBot are excellent starting points, but they can only take a student so far. Khan Academy and Codecademy are a lot more advanced, but some students will find their content dry.