If you are a parent or a teacher wanting to teach your 9 year old fourth grader how to code, these tips will help your child explore a world of possibility using logic and reasoning through coding and programming. If your kids have shown in interest in how technology works, these are some tips that can help you allow them to explore their potential in technology and development.
Kids in fourth grade are generally mastering complex concepts at the age of nine. They are capable of gaining an understanding of mathematics, literacy, and technology skills. If your kids have shown a discernible interest in learning how coding works, this could be an opportune time to teach them how to code.
In an increasingly digital world and the education system moving towards integrating more tech in the classroom, teaching kids computer coding, programming, and new innovations in technology will help them gain better logical and analytical thinking skills to improve problem solving.
While teaching a 9 year old kids can be potentially challenging, especially when teaching coding and programming, giving them fundamentals at this young age will advance their education. Kids can learn valuable and competitive talents while developing a problem-solving mindset with these transferable skills.
All About Teaching 9 Year Old Kids How to Code
Learning coding at a young age has become popular because it introduces them into the world of solving problems through recognizing logic, patterns, and algorithms. Coding teaches digital literacy as well as the real-world of troubleshooting and problem solving. At the tender age of 9, they can not only learn the basics of coding and development, but they can also explore creativity, problem solving, and project
What and Why to Teach Coding to Kids
Coding is simply as a way to communicate with a computer. Coding is used to create most modern consumer technologies, including social media, mobile apps, and other mobile devices.
Because we now live in an increasingly digital environment, teaching computer coding to children is essential for their future success and giving them the fundamentals to look at technology from a creator mindset instead of a consumer mindset.
Best Tips to Teach Your 9 Year Old How to Code
Children must learn how to code engagingly and to be easy for them to comprehend and understand. Some practical ways of teaching children to code are utilizing coding applications, letting them play with coding or STEM toys, and enrolling them in coding classes.
Explain Coding in Simple to Understand Terms
Coding is the way of transforming computer commands from a human into a language that computers can comprehend and execute correctly. A computer may understand various types of language, such as Python, Java, Javascript, and C+ language. Programmers utilize these coding and programming languages to create software programs, scripts, or other instructions for computers to carry out on the fly.
Multi-Lingual Concepts of Coding
Explaining coding to them as though you and the computer are two humans talking to each other will allow them to relate. Some people speak different languages, just like people in the real world do!
Gamifying Learning to Code
At 9 years old, they may probably know and play a mobile game. You can take a mobile game as an example of how coding works. Programmers use coding languages to make a mobile game or app, and how the characters in a mobile game understand and follow the player's commands.
Learn the Terminology and Vocabulatory of Coding
While 9 years old may have an idea about coding and how it can work, they may not be familiar with the technical terms of coding. If they start getting coding classes, they will need to brush up on several technological coding times, not only the definition itself.
Here are some of the most commonly used phrases in coding to get you started:
Syntax
Computer syntax refers to rules that determine how a programming language's symbols, punctuation, and words are organized and used. Using this, the computer will know how to decode the source code.
If you have a proper syntax, it is guaranteed that code is correctly read and interpreted by the computer.
Algorithm
The method by which a computer software performs a specific activity by following a set of instructions is called an Algorithm. If you want to relate the algorithm in real life to explain it simply for your 9 year old, you can take a food recipe as an example.
Recipes can be viewed as algorithmic thinking; if you want to make a dish, you have to follow a set of instructions.
Variables
Named memory areas within a computer program are referred to as variables. In computer programming, Names are assigned to variables. Variables in some programming languages must have a data type assigned to them.
Bug
A bug is a coding fault in a computer program in the context of computer science. Human error in creating the source code is the most common cause of software problems.
Some examples of a bug are a crash, calculation error, and a missing command.
Enroll Them in Coding Classes
If you do not have the luxury of the time to teach coding, or you do not think you are the right person to do so, enrolling your 9 year old in coding classes will be ideal.
Your 9 year old child learns the fundamentals of programming through these coding classes. Through this, the instructor may let them participate in creating their games, applications, and animations is beneficial, as is introducing them to block-based programming languages such as Scratch or Blockly.
Coding classes may be available in face-to-face classes, while others offer online courses via Zoom or recorded videos. There are also various coding courses on YouTube as well, but they won’t be sequenced or as structured for learning.
Books for Coding for Nine Year Old Kids
Knowledge about coding can also be found in books. While if you think that learning coding via books (as they may not explain it in simple terms), there are various books for coding available that are age-appropriate for your 9 years old (and even younger!).
Unplugged Activities
You may think that coding is all about computers, and they may always require a screen to learn. There has been a recent introduction of creators developing unplugged activities for 9 year olds that will help them learn coding without using computers.
One of the best examples of unplugged activities that you can try for your 9 years old is coding toys. These educational coding toys can also be referred to as STEM toys that can help teach coding to your 9 years old.
Some of the best coding (offline) toys you can use for your 9 years old are puzzles, blocks, and robots. These coding toys will also help them develop problem-solving and analytical thinking skills and boost their creativity.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are numerous reasons why learning coding is essential for 9 year old kids. Kids who also learn how to code will have an edge not only academically, but also in learning math and the fundamentals of logic and reasoning. They might find it challenging at first, but it can also be fun and satisfying!
Summary About Teaching 9 Year Old to Learn How to Code
In math, literacy, and computer skills are becoming second nature to children 9 years of age within this stage in their development.
Aside from the primary education that your 9-year-old can learn in school, they can also get a more academic advantage if you help them learn how to code. Having your 9-year-old learn how to code will improve their digital literacy, but it will also help them opportunities to be more creative in the future. Children can acquire problem-solving abilities while learning valuable and competitive skills if they learn how to code.
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