Only 1 more week of school left.

The reality, that kids are going to be home all-the-time, is starting to set in.

You might be trying to finalize and commit to summer activities for your children.

If you are on our mailing list, it is likely that you are considering coding camps.

And if you are considering coding camps, then you want to read this before enrolling them in one.

What typically happens is this…

When parents see their child has an interest in coding or believe that coding is something their child should know, they enroll her in a summer coding camp.

The child enjoys the 1-week camp. Things move on.

When winter break comes around, to the dismay of parents, the child has completely forgotten everything he or she has learned. The child doesn’t remember what a variable is. When someone asks him or her, “Can you code?” the answer is either “Not quite” or “Kind of”.

The #1 downside of summer coding camps is this: students forget everything they have learned in 6-9 months. They have to start from the beginning, again.

And the reason: lack of continuous learning.

We acquire meaningful skills when we learn them over time; when there is spaced repetition; when we get back to it over and over; when we continuously repeat the learning – doing cycle.

We don’t expect our child to learn piano or swimming in one summer. But for some reason, we expect them to learn to code in one summer.

Before you enroll them in a summer coding camp, ask yourself this question – What is your plan *after* the camp is over.

Unless your goal is to just keep them occupied while you can go to work, summer coding camp by itself isn’t enough. You need a continuous learning program for them to acquire this skill.

That is one reason we built CodeWizardsHQ as a structured program that students take over time until they have mastered coding. See our coding camps for kids.

If your child is starting out, he or she will enroll in the “Introduction to Programming” course.

We would teach them fundamental programming concepts like variables, loops, arrays, functions etc, all the while building super-fun projects.

The goal of our introductory course is to build a passion for coding. Many parents enroll their child in the program to see if their child would enjoy learning to code. By the end of the course, both the student and parent would know the answer.

Upon completion of the first course, they would go on to learn HTML/CSS and JavaScript in fall. They continue to build on what they learned during the summer. There is no abrupt ending.

With 1/week class once school starts, they get back to coding at a regular weekly interval. That continuous learning is crucial to making these skills stick.

This, we believe, is the only way to learn meaningful coding skills that your child will be able to use later on in the real world.

If you are looking for your child to learn coding in a way that sticks, I encourage you to find out more about our coding program and online summer camps.

The post #1 Thing to Consider Before Enrolling in a Summer Coding Camp appeared first on CodeWizardsHQ.

If you are like most parents, you are anxious to make good use of your child’s summer time.

We have started receiving lots of calls from parents.

If you are thinking about getting coding classes for your child, then summer is a golden opportunity you shouldn’t miss. Here is why. 

Learning any new skill is challenging at first.

You get stuck on the mechanics.
You waste time on dead-ends.
You forget things you learned.
You get confused about concepts you thought you understood.

It’s frustrating.

But once you persevere through it, you start to get the hang of it.

You start figuring little things out.
Every mini success deepens your interest.
You get engaged with the challenge in front of you.
You start creating things that you feel proud of.

Learning becomes fun. You’re on a roll. You have survived the dip. 

Any child can learn to code, but not every child survives the dip.

Besides having an interest, what is the most important thing a child needs in order to survive the dip of learning to code?

TIME. 

Time to work on coding.
Time without distractions.
Time without competing priorities.
Time without impending deadlines.

It is hard to get that time during school year  During summer, they have plenty of time.

If they utilize that time to start learning to code and get through the initial dip, then summer is a roaring success.

However, summer is not the end-game.

It is hard for anyone to master coding in one summer. To have meaningful skills, they need to continue learning during the school year.

It is much easier to CONTINUE during school year, than START during school year. 

Our program is setup to accomplish exactly that for your child.

Our 3-week summer classes and 1-week online summer camps give them the initial launch and momentum. Most students come out of that excited about learning to code.

After that, they take our regular weekly classes and continue their learning until they complete our full curriculum.

55 minutes a week to continue learning something that they have come to enjoy becomes very doable.

By the time the next summer rolls around, your child will know more coding and programming than 99.9% of the students out there! 

Don’t miss the summer. Get them started. Then, it’s easy to continue during school year.

If your child masters this crucial 21st century skill, it will set him or her up for unprecedented level of college and career success. 

Check out whether or not our summer coding program is right for your child. If you have questions, feel free to call us at 1-800-213-2417.

The post Summer is a Great Opportunity for Doing This appeared first on CodeWizardsHQ.