Are your children preoccupied with games and other entertainment apps? Perhaps it is time to turn that interest into a learning avenue by empowering your children to design and create their own games, stories and animations with Scratch!

Scratch is a block-based programming language created by MIT specifically with young children in mind. By enabling children to program their own animations, stories and games, Scratch is intended to help young kids develop important skills such as computational thinking, algorithmic logic, problem-solving and creativity — essential skills for life in the 21st century. This articles touches on two key benefits of learning Scratch.

It’s Easy and Fun to Get Creative with Scratch

Scratch’s drag-and-drop block programming eliminates the need to write lines of code that can be overwhelming to a young child. By snapping blocks together as they would with Lego sets, the projects become intuitive to young children. The colours of the blocks also helps them associate certain blocks with certain computing concepts.

While the block-based learning is simple for kids to pick up, it is very powerful. Kids can pull any story or game out of their imagination or from their favourite game/movie and make it their own personalised project in Scratch.

Think back to the most popular games over the recent decades. Pac-Man, Snake, Angry Birds are some examples of relatively simple yet viral games that caught the attention of millions. These games could be replicated by your children in Scratch. In fact, Scratch provides your children with the tools and skills to get creative with their own game and share it with friends and family, giving the children a sense of accomplishment too. After all, the best games are the ones your own child makes.

Scratch is also visually appealing and is perfect for children who love animation. As a kid, we were excited to use Microsoft Paint to design 2-D drawings. With Scratch, today’s kids can design dynamic scenes and piece them together to create elaborate stories of their own.

Learn to Identify and Solve Problems through Logical Reasoning and Computational Thinking

As children progress through more challenging projects in Scratch, they are bound to hit “logic” roadblocks. It is at these points that the child gets the opportunity to learn key problem solving skills to overcome these obstacles. They will need to understand the issue and identify potential solutions to the problem they are facing. This builds the ability to think independently and making logical decisions.

Part of identifying the solution involves computational thinking. This means breaking these challenging projects into smaller parts that they are familiar and comfortable solving. This also teaches them to structure their thoughts according to a logical and appropriate sequence. With this, they will be able to solve the smaller parts of the problem piece by piece, and put it all together to solve the bigger picture.

The skills picked up while learning to code will have far-reaching implications in the broader education of children. When they are faced with a complex problem/examination question, they will have the necessary skills and confidence to solve it with a developed thought process.

Scratch provides a unique opportunity to young kids to develop key skills of the 21^st century from a young age, giving them a good footing for their future education and beyond. Importantly, this is done in a fun, engaging and visually appealing manner so your kids will enjoy and actually look forward the learning process!

Build A Code offers tailored and personal coding classes that are customized to your child’s interests and your goals for them. Our classes include a series of fun games, stories and animations specially designed for your children. Free trial classes available.

Find out more by tapping on the bear below!

The advent of rapid technological progress is changing the nature of the industries we work in. By one popular estimate, 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist. This tests the relevance of the education system we put out children through, as it needs to consistently play catch-up to changes in the way the world works.

An up-and-coming skill central in the shift towards greater adoption of technology is the ability to code. The demand for software engineers, app developers and data scientists has grown exponentially in the last decade and is expected to continue to do so going forward. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, software engineering and computer analyst jobs will grow by 20% between now and 2024. And with this high demand for those in this skillset, salaries are also elevated. According to Daxx, Python coders return an average annual income of $103,492. Python is one of the easiest languages to pick up, akin to learning Maths and English in a structured manner. Yet once mastered, it is a powerful language used in world class companies such as Google, Facebook and Netflix.

However, coding is not just for those who wish to explore a future in software engineering or data science. Teaching kids to code imparts key skills such as creativity and problem solving in a fun and exciting manner. These skills will go a long way in our children’s future career.

Creativity

Children are given the tools and space to create when they learn coding. They have the chance to design something that is entirely their own. It could be an idea or a game, if they can imagine it, they can build it with code. And because languages such as Python are easy to pick up, confidence to create comes quickly to kids. Less time needs to be spent on learning technicalities of coding due to its simple yet effective nature. This frees up time for kids to unlock their creativity and turn their ideas into reality in a fun and exciting way.

Problem Solving

Coding develops an appreciation of how things work. To undertake a task, kids need to understand the problem or idea and identify an action plan. Through code, kids are encourage to break a plan down into smaller pieces and solve it in a structured and logical manner because after all, coding is quite simply just English and Maths. And this is reflective of the job of software engineers who use math in order to solve problems in a logical and creative way. However, the ability to solve problems is a trait that extends to life in general. We all want our children to become excellent problem solvers so that they can overcome any adversity they face. Learning to code provides your child with the opportunity to develop this skill while they are young and it can help them along the way in life.

So, while coding has a role to play in the future of our children, it is also important that they enjoy it. Coding courses and classes should not feel like a chore or additional tuition to them but rather something they look forward to build and design their own ideas. Therefore, coding should be introduced in a fun manner through exciting games and projects to encourage children to explore and unlock their potential.

Build A Code offers tailored and personal coding classes that are customised to your child’s interests and your goals for them. Our classes include a series of fun games and projects that represent real-world applications. Free trial classes available.

Find out more by tapping on the bear below!

In school, children learn about the existing wealth of knowledge. This information has already been discovered by those that came before us and it has formed society today. The current system teaches kids to apply this existing knowledge in relevant jobs when they grow up. They study biology to be doctors, physics to become engineers and finance and economics to become bankers. These jobs may evolve with technology but will likely stick around for the long haul.

So, while the education system is a crucial building block, perhaps less time is currently being spent on developing a child’s innovative and inventive traits. Children are the workforce of the future. However, they shall thrive only as long as their education remains relevant or if they can adapt quickly enough to changes.

For example, a worker or company in sales and marketing that relied on newspapers and billboards to advertise products would be out business in today’s world. The innovations brought upon by Google allows businesses to sell to customers on a device they cannot seem to ever put down, their mobile phone. Google is just one of the many examples of industry disruptors (Amazon in retail, Grab in transport, AirBnB in accommodation). These disruptors break the mould and re-define the way industries are run.

We don’t learn this in school. It is impossible to teach a kid how to create a Google or an Amazon. However, we can provide our kids with the right skillset to spark an idea that could be the next big innovation. Empowering kids with the power of code is central to this. Directly, coding allows us to create. Anything we can imagine, we can build with code. Giving this power to kids allows them to explore their own ideas in a concrete and creative way.

Indirectly, coding also develops creativity, problem solving and critical thinking skills within kids, skills commonly found in the modern-day inventors and innovators. In fact, most tech inventors/billionaires started coding from a young age and acknowledge its importance in their development. Elon Musk, founder of the Tesla and SpaceX built and sold his first computer programme when he was 12. From there, he continued to find creative ways to solve problems faced by society (PayPal – the first user-friendly money transfer service in 2000). He now owns the most valuable car company (an electric car company!), more valuable than the five biggest traditional car companies combined (Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler, GM and BMW) paving the way forward for environmentally-friendly solutions for the world’s needs.

Of course not all kids will want to pursue the path of being a disruptor and build their own ideas and business when they grow up. Nevertheless, the skills learnt during coding can be applied anywhere, from greater creativity to being able to think about problems and form actionable solutions to these problems through structured thinking. There are many solutions that are to be discovered, some may disrupt an industry but most will likely be incremental enhancements to the way we do things. Either way, both will shape a child’s future career pathway so ensuring they are equipped for it is essential. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple once said that everyone should learn how to code as it “teaches you to think”. And with modern programming languages such as Python and Scratch, learning to code has never been easier!

Build A Code offers tailored and personal coding classes that are customised to your child’s interests and your goals for them. Our classes include a series of fun games and projects that represent real-world applications. Free trial classes available.

Find out more by tapping on the bear below!