Best coding games for your kids
Make learning to code fun for children
In the age of technology, coding is no longer a skill reserved for seasoned IT professionals with years’ worth of experience. Today’s kids are learning coding from a young age. There are now plenty of unique educational products designed to teach them coding in fun, basic, and easy-to-comprehend ways.
Teaching children technological skills like coding also has a number of benefits for their cognitive development, as you’ll see below.
Why Teach Kids to Code?
Teaching kids how to code gives them more life skills than simple technological literacy alone. Coding can strengthen preschoolers’ and kindergartners’ abilities to learn, recover from failures and become resilient. They quickly pick up that if they make a mistake while coding, they can always delete the error and try again until they succeed.
Modern coding products have read-out-loud features that can teach even non-readers how to code. This offers them invaluable problem-solving skills, through determining how to move objects on a screen through a range of obstacles, for example.
Elementary school students can benefit from learning to code by completing their own unique projects on their own. This allows them to exercise their independence, encourages them to create and experiment, and challenges them to innovate using technology.
Coding can also teach middle- and high-schoolers important skills like algorithmic thinking and data pattern recognition. Students who learn to code early on are equipped to take AP Computer Science once they reach high school, and tend to outperform their peers in Calculus and Statistics exams.
What is the Best Coding Language to Teach?
Currently, Python is widely recognized as the most popular coding language in use. It is relatively easy to grasp and has a wide range of applications and uses. You can use it to build a website, develop a game, and achieve all sorts of other coding-related goals.
Python is also primarily object-oriented, which means that any computer program built using this language will consist of objects that interact with each other. This is a great way to teach young minds ‘if-then’ reasoning, which is also widely used in the programming world.
The Best Entertaining Coding Games for Your Kids
If you want your child to start coding, these games are excellent starting points:
1. Cubetto
Cubetto the Coding Robot Toy is a screenless coding toy designed for preschoolers aged 3 to 6. This wooden robot makes computer programming fun, easy, and engaging. It boasts a Cubetto Playset and child-friendly interface boards and coding blocks that are used to program an epic journey across the toy’s world map.
Cubetto comes with a vivid storybook that assists kids in taking the robot on grand adventures while integrating literacy into their learning sessions. The toy teaches kids cooperation and programming and enhances their imaginations, all at the same time.
2. Cup Stacking Algorithms
This is an easy, accessible coding game that uses basic plastic cups to teach kids more about programming. The challenge is to innovate a cup stacking design and record the building steps as algorithms—the same steps a computer would need to solve a problem.
You can find plenty of free printables on the web to guide this game and ensure that it’s both educational and fun.
3. CheckiO
CheckiO is an exceedingly popular coding game designed to teach kids Python and Javascript. It’s well over a decade old and contains plenty of fun games that teach programming in relatable ways. You can access the service by logging in to the CheckiO website and using codes to attack and fight off enemies in-game.
4. CodeCombat
CodeCombat is a platform through which children can learn computer science while playing real, highly entertaining games. CodeCombat teaches programming and Python coding during dungeon battles with fearsome ogres. It’s both entertaining and very educational and even comes with a multiplayer game mode so that your child’s friends and siblings can join in the fun.
5. Mapping a Route Coding Game for Kids
This simple coding game from Science Sparks gets kids up and active while they learn. One child is blindfolded according to the rules, and another will direct them around obstacles towards an endpoint. The game promotes logic, innovation, and cooperation, which are all excellent skills for young coders in the making!
6. Unicorn Magic Coding Game for Preschoolers
This is a neat printable board game designed by Preschool Powol Packets that makes it easier than ever to teach coding to young children. Simply print out the board, cut out the moving pieces, and allow your kids to learn great early coding skills like series, sequencing, problem-solving, teamwork, and cooperative play.
7. If-Then: The Backyard Coding Game for Kids
This is definitely one of the easiest coding games to get your kids involved in, as it requires no preparation at all. The game from Left Brain Craft Brain teaches kids ‘if-then’ conditional statements, which are widely used in programming. One kid in a group will be the programmer, while the rest will play as computers. This nifty game also has four different versions so kids and teens of all ages can get involved!
8. Code Monkey
Code Monkey is an award-winning coding game for kids that teaches them how to code in an exceedingly simple way. The game consists of levels, and in each level, kids will need to use different codes to help the titular monkey character to reach a hidden grove of bananas. Your kids are inspired to use their creativity and basic programming skills to complete each mission while learning new tricks as they go.
In Summary
Programming education should be widely available to anyone who’s interested in learning to code, children included. The era of technology is at its peak, and more people than ever before are getting involved with coding and pursuing careers in the tech sector .
Using an immersive and interactive game is a great way to teach your kids the basics of coding from a young age. They can then build on this knowledge as they grow older and their abilities become more advanced.
