Summer is the time where kids relax, play, and socialize with their friends. Exploring their surroundings and hanging out with their peers teaches them important lessons about life that can’t be learned any other way.
But after a school year unlike any other, where COVID-19 compelled schools to close for in-class learning, parents are understandably worried that their child’s education is not what it would have been. In an ordinary year, a summer class can be a fantastic way to prevent students’ brains from getting rusty. Online coding courses can be the summer activity your child needs to keep their mind sharp and have some fun, too.
Please continue reading to learn more about how the sessions work.
Video games have gone from being a niche form of entertainment to a multi-billion-dollar industry as the underlying technology has improved. RP4K’s online coding camp for kids is oriented around creating a video game that students can play and share with their friends.
We offer classes from the introductory to expert level, so there’s a suitable program for your child, even if they’re a seven-year-old who has never used a computer before! Even our most basic course allows children to design their own, giving them the skills they need to advance in programming, but also a sense of agency and ownership over what they’ve built.
Using video games to frame lessons and motivate children is a great way to encourage learning. However, the skills they acquire have countless applications across many different fields.
Some of our alumni have gone on to code video games for companies like Microsoft, while others choose from many jobs requiring considerable computer skills. Designing and programming a video game becomes its own type of game that kids want to play, and they won’t even realize that they’re learning.
Building video games is a lot more fun than what kids usually associate with “summer school.”
The RP4K online coding camp for kids teaches languages that professionals use to build some of the most popular apps, software, and, of course, video games. It’s crucial to teach young programmers how to become independent within the same coding language or how to use more complex languages that give coders more freedom to build.
Here is a list of the coding languages RP4K teaches:
These are the languages used to build digital technology that has become a staple in millions of households, from Minecraft to Netflix and Spotify. Avoid coding courses that only teach drag-and-drop languages designed to give young children a sense of what programming is like, and ensure they learn the languages they’ll need to know later on in school or when they enter the job market.
Every parent knows that small classrooms provide the most effective teaching environment. Each child needs attention from their teacher, especially when the subject matter is quite different than anything they’ve learned before and potentially challenging.
RP4K has a maximum of four students per teacher, so, at most, the class will consist of your child and three other students. The low student-teacher ratio facilitates classroom management and ensures our expert instructors can observe, instruct, and mentor each student.
It’s very important to take some time to figure out which course is the most suitable for your child. It could be based on their age or level of experience in coding.
Students must be challenged but not overwhelmed. If the lessons are too simple, they won’t be sufficiently driven or engaged. If the subject matter is too complicated, it may snuff out their interest in computer programming before it has time to develop.
That’s why RP4K allows for a 45-minute free trial class that lets children sample the course material first-hand. Parents are encouraged to observe the session to see how their kid reacts, understand what the program looks and feels like, and potentially solve any technical issues which may arise if their children are young.
Summer allows for RP4K to offer a special coding bootcamp running until late August, featuring 3-hour daily sessions between 9 am-12 or 1 pm-4, instead of the normal 1-hour day sessions spread over 18 weeks.
Condensing the sessions lets students become more immersed in the material and allows them to learn complicated programming techniques in far less time than it would otherwise take. While many online coding courses popped up because of the COVID-19 pandemic, RP4K has offered ours since 2000.
Credit: ThisisEngineering via Pexels
In that time, we’ve developed sound pedagogy and experience which benefits students of all levels. For the most advanced students, we also have a full-day option. It’s been said that chess is “an ocean in which a gnat may drink, or an elephant may bathe,” and we think the same is true of computer coding.
Sessions are hardcore, intense, and fun, with expert instructors pre-screened to teach young children and teenagers.
Summertime is supposed to be fun, and the teachers at RP4K know first-hand what it’s like to be on both sides of the screen. Some of our current teachers were once RP4K students!
We deliberately look for teachers with a background in Computer Engineering or Computer Science who skew on the younger side because it ensures that they have the required expertise and grew up playing video games. There’s more to learning than mastering domain knowledge — genuine excitement for the course material is infectious and a crucial intangible. Kids need to have fun when they learn, especially in the summertime after such a difficult school year.
Our modern society is loaded with dazzling technology on pocket-sized devices, but people who know how to code have an inside edge and are better prepared for the future. If your child is looking for a fun learning experience that keeps their mind sharp and gives them skills the future needs, sign up for online coding courses with RP4K.
