As a boy (in the 1980's) my father introduced me to very simple coding called 'Basic' on an Acorn Electron computer. This was truly basic, but I recall at the time it took considerable effort to produce a relatively simple output. I very much enjoyed this experience and it gave me a thirst for it. However, I didn't know how to progress into more complex languages, and ultimately life led me in another direction.
I have always been interested in coding, but never knew where to start. Over the last few years, particularly during Christmas holidays, I have found myself with time on my hands, and no particular hobbies. I have therefore caught myself being drawn towards learning to code. However, I also recognised that from the foot of the mountain looking up, learning to code would be a significant undertaking.
For a week or two each year I would watch html & css tutorials on YouTube, and get very a basic grasp of what lay behind a webpage. This knowledge was gained in a fairly ad-hoc basis, but gave me the ability to recognise (rather than programme) simple code within very simple webpages. The problem I had, was that I didn’t really have a purpose to learn to code. I have no intention of coding for a living, I was just interested, and I wanted to be able to produce my own little projects. I couldn’t really justify the investment of time needed to become proficient to a level that would satisfy me, and like Golf, was resigned to the ‘maybe one day’ pile, or perhaps when I retire.
Over the past year or so, I have been thinking about the rich experience gained during my childhood, and that I would like to pass it on to my children. In my view, coders are modern-day wizards, and to whatever level my kids choose to learn will give them critical skills essential to a variety academic and professional disciplines in future.
This led me to do a little research on how to get kids started with coding. These days there are lots of sources of information, but rather than the ad-hoc approach I had initially taken, I wanted a structured course that would lead them through a logical sequence building on prior knowledge.
At the time of writing my kids are in Year’s 6 & 7 at school. Young enough that we need to keep it simple, fun and motivating. From my research code.org appears to be the place to start. They have developed a FREE curriculum for kids to follow that is also age appropriate.
Their ‘Hour of Code’ series is excellent, and the perfect way to start. Through a highly graphical interface, kids are led through animating their characters using drag-and-drop blocks, which teaches them the fundamentals of sequencing their commands, including loops and simple functions. There is then an element of free-play for them to explore and build on what they have learned… genius!
We then intend to skip straight into their Middle School curriculum which starts with the very basics of html, and hence the reason for this website. Whilst I currently have enough knowledge to throw a couple of simple (and ugly) webpages together, I want to use what we all learn to develop the site and record how we get on. My takeaway from the last few years of tinkering, is that unless you use the information learned, you forget it very quickly. Therefore, this site will be developed as we go along as an ongoing project.
So, there it is, I now have motivation for learning and using code, and this was probably my limiting factor previously. In order to help my kids, I need to get ahead of the game. It is true that I could just follow the same code.org course as my kids, but it is less age appropriate for a middle-aged fellow. For adults, I can see that freecodecamp.org offers extensive FREE courses. Whilst I have only just started, the content appears to be excellent.
Watch this space!