Teach Your Child Computer Coding With Code For Teens {Curriculum Review}

Whether writing or reading, computer code, and the ability to understand it has become a vital part of society. So when the opportunity came along to review Volume 1 from Code for Teens, we were really excited! Coding is something my oldest child is very interested in and has shown a natural knack for in the past. This something I am more than happy to encourage and help him with – even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Thankfully, Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner’s Guide to Programming (Volume 1), can help.

First Things First

As with any new curriculum, I always start with the instructions. The part of the program that tells the parents how to best use the program. I like to make sure I know what we are doing, and why.

Thankfully, there really wasn’t a lot to go over. This program is designed to be open-and-go and it is written to the student. Very little parental oversight is needed if any at all. Which works well because as excited as my son is about this stuff, it makes no sense to me. Mostly because it’s truly a foreign language. Even though the applications taught in this book are simple enough and use the same keys I am using to write this review, it just isn’t anything that I understand.

Jeremy Moritz, the author of this book, gets this. He gets that parents may not fully grasp coding (or software engineering as it is actually called) and set out to create a product that was truly for his target audience. This book was designed so that anyone with a 6th-grade reading level or higher can open it up and simply follow along with easy to understand steps.

Of course, you can always join in and learn to code right alongside your student.

What Is Code For Teens?

Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner’s Guide to Programming (Volume 1) is all about JavaScript, which happens to be a pretty common programming language. In fact, on page 5 of Code For Teens, you can learn that it is used in over 90% of all websites.

So really, it’s not only common, it’s also really important in the world of software.

Chapter 1 starts your student out with writing their first lines of code. Right off the bat, they are in the computer and writing code. My son worked on this chapter the first day for just a few minutes before he came out and told me that he was making the computer complete math equations. To him, this was pretty amazing and he was already dreaming of asking the computer to work on his Algebra 1 assignment.

A little more time with the chapter and he was telling me that he had successfully completed the chapter 1 quiz including reviewing key concepts and the chapter 1 drills. He could now write short bursts of code, have the computer average numbers, and was building his own understanding of syntax (the language and grammar of coding).

Chapter 2 picks up with numbers but adds another layer of challenge. Instead of simple lines of coding, he was now working on more challenging lines of instructions and more complicated tasks. This chapter started right where chapter 1 left off and introduces the concepts of augmented assignments, increment and decrement operators, and the modulo operation.

If you are confused, welcome to the club. It was at this point that I just had to trust my son when he told me that this not only made sense to him, but that he enjoyed it as well.

What Is Covered In Code For Teens?

Code For Teens is a 10-chapter book that covers a lot of material. From just starting out and finding where in your browser to enter the code to creating looping codes.

Also included in the program in the answer key and a handy glossary if they forget what a certain term means. Each chapter is laid out in an easy to read format with each lesson building on the prior one. After each new concept is introduced your student is encouraged to retry a lesson if it didn’t make sense to them the first time around or they may continue to the next step. Each chapter ends with a quiz, a review of the key concepts introduced, practice drills, and a cumulative review of all material covered so far. They are also given the opportunity to review code that was purposefully written wrong. This gives them the chance to review code for errors and really helps to solidify the concepts they are learning.

Oh, and did I mention it’s funny? Filled with wit, humor, and plenty of “Dad jokes,” this program makes coding seem a lot less mundane and boring than you would think. The content itself is not dry and boring at all. Instead, it is quite entertaining and encourages your student to create games and complete other tasks that are relevant to them.

Where Can You Get Code For Teens?

If you are looking to add a basic computer coding program to your student’s schedule, I really would recommend Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner’s Guide to Programming (Volume 1) from Code for Teens. You can visit their website to order Volume 1:JavaScript. And don’t forget to check them out on Facebook as well.

As for us, we are going to continue using this program. My son really enjoyed working on the first two chapters in this program and is looking forward to finishing it. He is also interested in seeing just what else Code for Teens offers in the future.