When children learn how to code online, they learn a whole lot more than programming. Yes, they’ll walk away with directly transferrable computer skills, but they also gain a whole set of indirect knowledge that will help influence how they think and help them in unrelated situations.
Some of the ways may be surprising, so please keep reading to learn more.
RP4K was founded by a mathematician, and every course we offer for kids has a hidden math lesson built in. We teach math concepts like integers, 3D vectors, and even trigonometry in a way that’s so much fun kids won’t even realize that they’re learning!
When children learn to code, they exercise the part of their brain they’ll need in math class, and parents love having a fun way to keep their children’s minds sharp.
Learning how to code involves a lot of binary choices where things either succeed or temporarily fail. That’s why kids develop a tolerance for mistakes: they view mistakes as an inevitable part of the learning process. Mistakes give them important data they then apply when they go back and revisit their tasks.
Engineers also must have a strong balance of creativity and logical thinking. Outside-the-box solutions go a long way when you’re a computer scientist or software engineer.
Building up such habits of mind is healthy for children, even if they never become professional coders or end up working with computers. Our live online coding classes for kids help instill a positive foundation for how children solve problems, but they also help develop confidence and self-esteem.
Giving children a sense of accomplishment is a wonderful way to build them up and help them understand just how much they can do in this world. RP4K coding for kids classes revolves around them creating and programming their own video game, one they can play afterwards with friends and family.
Playing video games is fun, but children will quite literally play their own creation, which will impress their relatives and make them feel like they built something special. As they progress as developers, they’ll learn to improve their skills and achieve something even better.
Our live online coding classes for kids teach children how to build computer programs and build up the children themselves. They’ll walk a little taller after they’ve graduated from an RP4K class, proud of what they’ve built.
RP4K prioritizes fun above everything. Obviously, children must learn to code computers, but we never put teaching above pleasure.
RP4K puts video games at the centre of what we do in a couple of ways. For one thing, children learn better when they’re enjoying the material and are genuinely engaged. Video games are the core project children work on, but we also use gamification concepts in our lessons to harness what makes video games so engaging for kids and use them for learning.
If you’ve ever seen a child addicted to video games, you’ll be glad to know the same type of dynamics can be applied to something more wholesome and vital, like education.
RP4K is also proud to hire coding and computer science experts who skew on the young side. Teachers who didn’t grow up with video games can’t relate to kids who have them today, so we ensure that our students and teachers share the same passion and first-hand experience when it comes to gaming.
Plus, this also allows students to ask practical questions about what doing coding is like later on in school or in the workforce since their teachers will have relevant experience. Our teachers tend to be post-secondary computer scientists and computer engineers, but some have also developed video games for companies like Blizzard Entertainment and Microsoft.
Coding isn’t always thought of as a language the way Spanish or French is. But coding is absolutely a written language with its own grammar and syntax, and it enables people to communicate ideas and commands.
People who speak, read, and write in multiple languages report that they think differently in each one, and learning multiple coding languages requires a similar type of shift. It may be surprising to hear that learning one type of language can help prepare kids for learning another, but it can.
Just like music is its own language with codes and patterns, children improve their language skills by learning to code.
There’s a vast difference between learning basic commands and becoming an elite programmer. By the end of the RP4K program, students learn in-depth skills in advanced coding languages, such as C++. From things like textures, materials, prefabs, lists, tags, delegates, coroutines, and more, your child will leave our program with the skills to be a valued professional coder.
Manipulate and learn to rotate objects in three dimensions, control matrices, vectors, linear interpolation, and more. Some of our students go on to become RP4K teachers or find work as a professional coder or in a surprising range of other computer-related jobs.
You can read about what coding classes are like all day, but you won’t really get a feel for them until you experience one yourself. That’s why we let students and parents enjoy a free trial lesson, so they can test out the waters and see if coding is proper for them.
If your child is young and has no experience in coding, they’re likely to require an entry-level course. Don’t hesitate to contact us to see which course is right based on their age and experience level, or try the free sample lesson to see if the lesson you’re inclined towards is indeed the most suitable.
Education often teaches students more than they expect to learn, as a series of unanticipated secondary benefits trickle down from the main lesson. If you want your child to have fun while learning enough to be prepared for the future, don’t hesitate to contact RP4K and book your first online coding class today.
