In my former life, before children I was a computer programmer, in the 4 years I’ve had away from my career technology has moved on at an astoundingly fast pace. All of a sudden everyone has iPads, we can do more and more with our mobile phones, our world is becoming increasingly digital. I find myself torn between wanting my children to be children, to run around outside, play imaginative games and hold onto the time in their life when they can just ‘play’, and not wanting them to fall behind their peers because of a lack of exposure to social media, video games and so on.
Teaching children to code is now part of the National Curriculum, my 7 year old is doing an after school club where he will learn to create his own video game, and my girls write mini programmes using little bee bots that they control the direction of movement of. Coding is going to play a huge role in our children’s future and it’s important we encourage our children to develop the skills needed from a young age. I’ve got some ideas over on Science Sparks for games and activities to help young children develop logic and computational thinking skills and Barclays have developed their own Code Playground for older children ( around age 7 ) to learn to code. Coding might sound dull and boring, but actually it can inspire a lot of creativity.
Barclays invited Mumsnetters and their children to a special Code Playground session where the children learnt how to write their own programmes, helped by Barclays Digital Eagles, while the Mums asked questions about keeping their children safe online.
I’m definitely going to try Barclay’s Code Playground with my 7 year old and can’t wait to see how he gets on.
What sorts of things could Barclay’s Digital Eagles help you with? Do you think learning coding skills in important for children? Would you like to learn to code?
Barclays also supply some great Family Finance and Business Support advice on the Mumsnet Website.
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‘This post has been sponsored by Barclays, but all thoughts are our own
Coding for children, wow this is really great as we need our children to be able to compete in a global community.
JJ is super interested in this and all things code and computer related, he has alreayd decided this is what he will do as an adult! Mich x
I’m off to have a look at this. Both Mr C and I are tech types and I think it vital to ensure that our children understand the modern age in which they are living, but at the same time I think they need to balance this with old fashioned childhood activities. Sadly it’s a balancing act that some adults struggle with though.
My 9yo is having a go at something like this but I didn’t know the name of it. I’ll show him. Thanks for sharing and enlightening us! X
I think this is so important. Coding is actually pretty simple if you have mathematical mind, and yet mind-boggling if you’re never shown how. My daughter used bee bots in reception and loved them, and children just don’t have the same fear of what they don’t know – they just want to learn, so the earlier the better.