‘Coding’ for kids has become a fad and for all the right reasons. There are numerous advantages of getting ‘early learners’ to practice coding. However, children should experience fun & interaction while getting used to the basics of programming languages, or they might get bored.

To get children started on their coding journey, there are many Apps available for download with colorful graphics and interesting characters that amuse children to delve deeper. Through this article, you can learn about some popular coding apps for kids as young as 5 years of age.

#1 ScratchJr (Android, iPhone, iPad)

With ScratchJr, children create their own stories and give life to a character. Suitable for age groups 5-7 years, ScratchJr will take children on an adventure, where they are free to imagine ‘wonder & mystery’ and culminate an exciting story through the App. Children put together ‘graphic programming blocks’ and make characters move, jump, dance, and sing. The animations can be modified on a ‘paint editor’ and one can even record their own voice and make the characters speak. One can even insert their own photo so that the entire experience feels real. While curating the story, children develop design skills, sequencing skills, and solve problems, that add up to their learning. With an aim to learn coding, there’s so much more that students grasp, while discovering their own potential.

#2 Hopscotch: Coding for Kids (iPhone and iPad)

Hopscotch is an educational coding app for beginners, that allows kids to gain coding knowledge, skills, and confidence, to survive in this digitally advanced world. The App is ideal for students 7 – 13 years of age, however, anyone can use it. Being a kid-friendly programming tool it promotes learning through games, apps, and animations. Children can refer to millions of projects created by other learners; and play them, tweak them, or remix them, as they wish. Interesting play-along video tutorials teach kids to make popular games such as; Crossy Road, PokemonGo, and many more. Simply, watch the explainer videos and understand ‘how to code’. Over 10 million families, across the world, have trusted Hopscotch. You can start your free trial and later subscribe by paying $9.99/month or $79.99/year.

#3 Kodable (iPhone and iPad)

Kodable is an award-winning coding program for kids of age 4 – 10 years. The module teaches children about computer science, from zero to JavaScript and everything under the sun, without requiring any prior experience. Children make new friends and join the fuzzFamily, while creating their own game. Its indeed fun to get acquainted with technomazes and explore the asteroid fields of Asteroidia. Play with slime at Bug World, while learning important computer coding concepts. Children are encouraged to think like a programmer and write real codes with the help of a simple coding interface. There are over 70 lessons to choose from, with off-screen and on-screen components. Kodable, shares instruction manuals, introduces vocabulary words and makes available students’ materials.

#4 Lightbot – Programming Puzzle (Android, iPhone, iPad)

As featured in the New York Times, Lightbot is being used by more and more enthusiastic newbie coders each day. Lightbot presents fascinating programming puzzles which use game mechanics, that have their roots in programming concepts. This App is for children aged 8 years and above. Lightbot lets players gain a practical understanding of basic control-flow concepts like procedures, loops, and conditionals, just by guiding a robot with commands to light up tiles and solve levels. Lightbot allows students to practice conditions like; loop, procedures, etc. and guide the Robot with commands. In totality, there are 50 levels and 20 challenges to keep our little coders busy and productive all day. The above apps and the increasing number of other ‘coding platforms’ show us how easy it is to navigate children in the right direction and drive them to practice important computer lessons.

Coding with LEGO® Education

Lego, the world-famous Danish ‘toy’ company, also works towards introducing coding to children, through a hands-on approach. Children use familiar Lego bricks and combine them with easy-to-use ‘coding software’ based on Scratch. Schools that follow the STEAM curriculum across Dubai and other GCC countries have found it advantageous to integrate

Lego® Education lessons in their day-to-day teaching. To research more on LEGO® Education – Coding Solutions for kids and to get yours delivered anywhere in UAE & across the Middle East, visit the website https://shop.knowledge-hub.com/