There are plenty of activities out there that you can encourage your kids to take to help develop many aspects of themselves. One underrated activity that more parents should encourage their kids to take would be coding. Before anything else, let’s first figure out what coding is.
What is coding
If you don’t know what coding is, coding is how computers communicate. It’s how we tell it to create and operate certain things, like software, sites, games, apps, and so on. It’s the blood running through its digital veins.
It’s a pretty complicated activity, but anyone can do it as well, no matter what the age is. As long as you start, anyone can become efficient at it eventually. Furthermore, in recent years, coding schools have soared in popularity. More young people than ever before are now aspiring towards careers in exciting fields such as web and software development and therefore attending an online code academy such as Bay Valley Tech is a good way to learn about the basics.
Students of all ages can now learn about coding through structured online courses that provide the tuition needed to make real progress. In the modern world, digital skills are highly valued. Therefore, the sooner the next generation can get to grips with coding, the better their career prospects will become.
Why Coding is Important for Kids
Now that you know what coding is, it’s time to figure out why your kids should take it up. Here are several reasons why coding for kids is an essential or essential past-time (in the beginning) for your kids.
Coding is another language
Learning how to code is like learning a different language, which, based on our coding description, is a language, except it’s a language for computers. There are even other coding languages out there, but that’s a topic for another time.
When your kids start getting into coding, they go through the mental exercises that anyone goes through when learning a new language. The knowledge of a different language helps us understand the world better and in another way.
Kids are curious. Coding will help them understand how the technological world operates and maybe even how to navigate it better.
Coding fosters creativity
Coding relies on your analytical skills, but it doesn’t mean that that’s all there is to it. There’s a lot more creativity that goes into it than you would think at first. Creativity can be a considerable part of the coding process, and in some cases, it can even be the end goal. Since coding helps make ideas a reality, it involves creating media, and thus, creativity is a part of it.
Although you can’t say it’s like art where you get full self-expression, it’s still a pretty creative undertaking. You’ll find your children’s creativity challenged when thinking of ways to reach the end goal, mostly when one solution didn’t work.
Coding helps children with Math skills
Of course, the more obvious reason you want your child to get into coding is that it’s mathematical. Math skills are crucial skills for your kids growing up. It’s also a lot harder to foster when you make your kids too used to not feeling capable in math. That’s why getting them into coding might even help them fall in love with more mathematical approaches in life.
Coding is a way for your kids to apply mathematical concepts into real-world applications and seeing it create results.
Coding improves writing academic performance
Coding requires you to be able to organize and plan out your goals in a systematic manner. For kids, this is a skill that they have to learn over time. However, with the help of coding, your kids can get a tremendous head start that will allow them to express themselves and even organize their thoughts.
Although coding isn’t like creative writing, the ability to create mental connections will help your kids connect the dots in real life as well.
Coding helps children become confident problem solvers
Coding is all about heading towards a goal and solving problems or jumping over obstacles along the way. When we usually think of a problem ahead of us, we take too long to worry that we have a problem. We know the solution to a problem is to tackle it head-on, but we ruminate too much over it.
However, since problem-solving is a considerable part of coding, your kids won’t be as overwhelmed should they encounter problems in life. They’ll be more confident in facing problems because coding taught them that every situation could have a workaround. All they need to do is find it.
Coding gives kids a challenge and helps them develop resilience
Since problem-solving is a significant part of coding, this puts your kids in front of many challenges that they have to overcome.
They’ll be more patient and learn how to be better at picking themselves back up if a challenge manages to stump them. It’s a great way of developing a healthy mindset that they’ll be able to use as they grow older.
Coding teaches children how to think
When your kids are young, you want them to be able to be themselves and to run free as they’re still young. However, you also want them to get into the simple habit of thinking.
Coding is an activity that requires you to be present and to think critically and creatively to find solutions. That’s why, if you let your kids do this, it will surely make them better thinkers as a whole.
Coding is learning while having fun
If you don’t know how to code, it might seem like not much fun. However, coding offers tons of possibilities that your kids are going to enjoy. It’s like a systemic approach to creating something new in the digital form. Although there’s a science to it, it doesn’t make it any less fun to do because of all the possibilities open to your kids.
Younger minds have great potential to grow into healthy and intelligent minds, but you need to make sure that you’re feeding these minds with the right things to help it grow.
With the help of coding, your kids will learn not only a practical skill but also a lot of life skills that they can use for the rest of their life. If you want to encourage your kids to spend their time doing any activity, consider coding, and change their life for the better.