After the massive digital revolution, teaching programming to children has become just as important as learning languages, but the mindset of the programmer that is circulating in Hollywood films is a disheveled young man locked in his room with no social life, and you may feel surprised when you hear “programming for children,” teaching children It is no longer limited to teaching them to read, calculate and color, but you can teach your child how to program his game and his own application as well, so that some countries such as Britain have applied a curriculum to teach programming skills for children from the age of five, and how algorithms work on digital devices and develop some simple programs, and in This article will explain the importance of teaching the programming philosophy of your child, and the best programming languages preferred to be taught to them at a young age, as well as the most important platforms for teaching and applying them.
The importance of teaching programming to children
It is always said that the current generation is the generation of technology, but in reality most of the current generation is a consumer rather than a manufacturer, and by teaching them programming they can develop and program fun things like a start like games, applications and simple robots, as I explained in an interview to her on TED Linda Lucas - a programmer interested By teaching programming for children - the future will depend more on the software, and we have started relying on telephone and digital payment, and the matter is still evolving, and a future like this requires a large generation interested in programming, and not just a few programmers.
1 - Programming helps to expand awareness not only to understand the programming language, but also the way to solve problems and design and develop solutions.
2-Helping them with logical thinking procedures, so the child will understand that what is happening around him is for a reason, and that in order for him to reach a specific result he must perform procedures step by step to reach a specific result.
3- Finding the child for his passion, your child may be a genius, but you do not know because he did not experience himself in several fields, including programming, and his career may be and he can start his career from a very young age in the event he loves programming and develop himself in it.
4- Programming is related to many fields in medicine, engineering, pharmacy and teaching, and various areas of life now and in the future.
5-Developing the ability to think outside the box. Programming opens the way for realizing the mind and thinking in making things from simple ideas. When a child feels accomplished, he enhances his progress and unlimited thinking.
6- Simplifying mathematics and its application in relation to the child. Mathematics in school curricula is a solid subject. Sometimes children wonder if it is useful to learn it, but by practicing programming, the idea of practical applications of mathematics is communicated.
When will I start teaching my child programming?
The child can learn programming from the age of three years, but by choosing the appropriate concepts tools, teaching children programming is not codes or required of them for certain languages but by communicating the general concept of programming, and at this age tangible programming is called TANGIBLE PROGRAMMING through games and tools from home.
But some opinions prefer to teach her to children from the age of five, where they can read at least.
The best programming and learning sites and courses for kids
udemy-1
The course was provided by code.org, and it is based on teaching children programming through games in a smooth and fun way, and provides a lot of resources for parents to facilitate their children's education for programming, and the course was provided at the request of President Obama at the time of his presidential term, after everyone asked adults and children the importance of learning programming.
2-scratch
It is the first programming language for children, invented by MIT, and it is a chain and entertaining language, which is codes within animation images. The child selects the appropriate code for the anime to move a certain movement, and so gradually the child absorbs the concept and idea of simple programming codes.
There is an explanation of how to deal with the site through the YouTube channel from here
3- Channel A. Ahmed Saad on youtube
In it he presents a series of videos explaining the scratch program in Arabic, in a seamless way that is understood for parents and children as well to understand all the advantages of the program and communicate the meaning of programming to beginners from children.
4-Alice
This site provides simplified information about codes and programming for animation stories, games and interactive presentations, and provides a stimulating environment suitable for the child to develop his logical thinking skills, and problem solving, which is a completely free initiative to train children from the middle stage in programming skills.
5-Hopscotch
One of the most important features of this site is its extreme simplicity and simple explanations, through which the father and mother can understand the principles of programming in the absence of a background for parents on programming, provides fun games for the child about installing cubic blocks in a certain way and the child only has to install cubes to make an electronic game or a simple project.
6-Helloruby
This site is very diverse and fun, it provides books to explain programming for children, translated into 33 languages around the world. It also provides software games and video explanations in a nice and simplified way. The child does not need to have any programming and coding experiences.
7-Cs unplugged
It provides a set of explanations on various programming topics and provides ready-to-print worksheets that are exercises for developing child programming skills, and it is a smooth site to use.
Author: Rikimaru