Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
Being a mother of 3 boys who all love video games, I am always on the lookout for ways to add technology and gaming into our homeschool curriculum! This school year my 2 older boys are excited to have a chance to learn some new technology skills. We have had the opportunity to try some new courses through Simply Coding’s Coding for Kids Annual Membership.
What is Simply Coding?
Simply Coding is a web-based curriculum that teaches kids and teens coding and other computer and technology skills. There are a large variety of easy to use self-paced courses with video, text, quizzes, practice and application. Simply Coding goes beyond many of the free drag and drop coding programs out that my kids have used. With Simply Coding’s Courses, kids go beyond the limitations of drag and drop coding and learn actually write code in text editors. With each course students are taught to code by creating their own games. It offers monthly or annual memberships to give your students access to any of their beginner, intermediate or advanced courses.
What courses does Simply Coding Offer?
I was excited to see that with the Coding for Kids Annual Membership provides access to a large variety of courses. I expected to only receive courses that would be appropriate for my 11 year old son. However, I found that there are many courses that are appropriate for my younger sons as well. With all of my kids 11 or younger we began with access to their 3 beginner coding courses. These are Intro to Websites, JavaScript Game Design, and Minecraft Mods in Java. There are also many more advanced courses available through Simply Coding. These take kids into learning about Coding with Python, Building Responsive Websites, 3d Game Design, Virtual Reality, Phone Apps, and More about JavaScript.
I was also pleasantly surprised with many other groups of technology courses. My younger kids found several interesting courses in the Simply Tech4Kids group. Here we found courses for kids in grades 3rd-5th and a one that my youngest (kindergartner) can use. There are courses made for kids that teach skills like, Keyboarding, Beginner Animation, Paint, Intro to Scratch, Electronics, or even Photography. Also, there are a variety of other media and tech courses available. These teach more about photography, photoshop, and even about using Word, Excel, and Google Applications.
How Simply Coding is working in our Homeschool
The Coding for Kids Annual Membership through Simply Coding has provided our homeschool with a wonderful resource to add some elective courses to my boys homeschool curriculum. It is set up so my son can work through the courses independently at his own pace. We found that the courses give you everything that is needed to fully complete all the projects. There has not been any other cost involved in anything we have tried. We have seen the courses even provides you with image files, and audio to be able to complete the projects. Some do have apps or other programs that students need to work with that require a sign-up or download. We started off with just my oldest son using a Simply Coding course, however my 9 year old has just now started a course as well.
JavaScript Game Design Course
My son started with the beginner course for JavaScript Game Design. Daniel (11 years old) began easily, quickly learning to download the files he needed, unzip them, and create folders for his work. We started off on our family PC, and then soon realized that particular course he was doing was compatible with his Chromebook. He was even more excited to be able to work on his personal Chromebook instead of our old desktop. The instructions are very clear and Daniel started coding his own pong game quickly. He likes how the course gives instructions, examples and practice and then immediately guides him to add code to his own project.
Daniel did have a few hang-ups that took us a little while to get past. He had some errors in his code and it took me (being even a less experienced coder than he is) a little while to help him figure out where he had missed a step. Soon he was back on track and had his game working again. However, during this process of helping him, I found I enjoyed the lessons and learning alongside him.
Now he often works on his Chromebook nearby me that way if he has a problem I can help if needed. However, I think the more he continues the course he will become even more independent with his coding as he has quickly gone past my knowledge! He has now officially coded his first working game, a Pong game, and is ready to dive into another. I am excited to see where this course takes him and all that he will create this year! The next few parts of the course will teach him to code a fish game and then a platform game.
Other Courses We like from Simply Coding
After looking at many of the other courses with my boys they wanted to try many of them at the same time! I had to limit them to focusing on one course. Recently I let my 9 year old son pick a course on Simply Coding to try. He decided to start the Animatron 4Kids Course and is excited about learning to use the Animatron program to create some basic animations. He is getting more comfortable working through a course independently and learning more basic computing skills. Both my boys are excited to soon try the Minecraft Mods in Java Course! There are so many courses they want to try, and I am so excited that they are excited about the new skills they are learning.
Simply Coding’s Coding For Kids Annual Membership is a wonderful resource for Homeschool Families. If you have kids, especially kids 11-18, that are interested in learning to code games and websites, beyond what they can learn with basic drop and drag coding programs check out Simply Coding. They have a free trial available to try it out yourself! Also, click below and check out what other reviewers of the Homeschool Review Crew have to say about their experience with Simply Coding this year!
