UPDATED: FEBRUARY 22nd 2022
With schools back in full swing and Covid restrictions easing, kids are in REAL classrooms, with real people! But does that mean your kids are spending less time on their screens in class or when they are at home?
If you have kids between the ages of 10-18, probably not, in fact, they may be more immersed than ever if they’d been using Google Classroom to support their learning while they were learning at home.
And, you’ve no doubt heard about the importance of computer literacy and getting your kids into programming and coding if you read any of the gaming news prolific on the web.
Of course during all this, you’re also probably wondering if your kids are learning the right things at school and how you can not only supplement their education at home but make the most of their screen time. But with way too many apps, toys, and books available, it’s hard to know where to start or which ones are worth the investment of time and money.
If your kids have expressed interest in gaming technology and think they’d like to learn more about how to create a tech game themselves, whether it be a virtual reality app like Roblox or Minecraft this post will help point you as parents, and them in the right direction.
Here are My Top 6 Choices for Tech Games You’ll Approve For Kids
Minecraft
Does your child spend hours playing Minecraft and is constantly amazed by the worlds that are built by other people in the game but think it’s out of reach for them? No more!
UPDATE:
Your child can learn to code and build their own Minecraft world with this free 60 minutes one on one game development trial class from computer scientist at MIT and Harvard. We attended a class from campk12.com and found it very expensive to register for classes. They wanted a 48 class commitment and even though they said it was guaranteed, something didn’t feel right. Also, although the instructor seemed nice enough, there was too much talking about herself and the lesson felt rushed. But the lesson was pretty good and the resulting game looked pretty cool. So, we’re going to give some other free coding classes a try now registered through Microsoft. And I’m attending too!
They can learn to;
1. create and code the 3D game, Minecraft.
2. understand logic development
3. virtual reality game development
Roblox
Virtual reality games for kids are all the rage in 2022 and what better way to ensure your child’s screen time is used for educational purposes tham to build their own Roblox game.
Fuel your child’s creative confidence by learning to code using computer science principles animation, 3-D design and development by joining the Roblox studio. This Intro course to coding in game design will help your child learn how to build their first game in Roblox. The course is two hours long and completely free.
Hopscotch
Design for kids age is 10 to 16, Hopscotch is a bite-sized intro to programming fundamentals through learning how software is made. The drag and drop functioning blocks of code allow kids to build their own programs. There are no mistakes, just learning, which supports creative and critical thinking, problem solving and confidence in kids. Hopscotch cofounders Jocelyn Leavitt and Samantha John hope to get girls into programming earlier and help fill the void of women in tech. Get started today by downloading the app in the app store.
Hello Ruby
Get girls into coding with this book that aims to teach 4-7 year olds about programming and open source culture through a smart, mischievous female protagonist and her whimsical adventures. tools for kids, parents and educators to learn to understand programming in a fun and creative way.
Parents get a workbook so they can learn and help their kids solve problems in the accompanying activity book.
Their story started off with a book that is now published in over 22 languages, including Japanese, Korean, Dutch and even Finnish.
Scratch
Scratch is a brainchild of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT’s Media Lab and is the world’s largest coding community for children. Its simple visual interface allows young people to create their own digital stories games and animations.
It promotes computational thinking and problem-solving skills creative teaching and learning collaboration positive self expression an equity in the computer programming world. It’s always free and is available in over 70 languages. It uses drag and drop blue blocks of code similar to Hopscotch.
Tynker
Tinker offers a range of options to learn coding for kids the ages of 5 and 18. Their self paced immersive game like courses teach kids programming and develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills. It also serves as a jumping off point into advanced learning real word real world programming languages like Python and JavaScript.
You can get started for free with the option for at home plans from as little as $7.50 per month. They occasionally run workshops exclusively for girls as well.
Do you know any other cool, fun, hip new programming and tech apps, toys and tools out there? Share your top picks in the comments below!
