We describe our top 5 favorite tools to learn computer science for kids in grades K-8.
Watch the video and leave comments or questions . Please don’t forget to subscribe or like the video if it is fun and educational!
Your kid wants a computer. Maybe a gaming computer? A laptop? PC or Macbook?
How do you decide what is the right fit and the right budget?
Melanie, Ryan, and Brandon will share some tips and advice to help you shop for the right computer this year.
Watch the video and leave comments or questions about buying the right computer for your kids–or tell us what other topics you might want to see us cover.
These are the questions we answer in this replay of a livestream. Melanie had questions about Roblox. What is Roblox? What do parents need to know to keep their kids safe while they play this popular game? What questions do our viewers have?
Ryan and Brandon unravel some of the mysteries about Roblox parents need to know. Like, for example, Roblox is more like the “YouTube of Video Games.” Roblox is a platform of games made by users. That’s really important to know.
We also dive into some common phrases kids might encounter in chat or use in text messages. Making you a more aware parent!
Watch the video and leave comments that include your burning questions about Roblox–or tell us what other topics you might want to see us cover.
Do your kids have their own cell phones? Are you worried about how to keep them safe while they have more freedom on these devices?
In this episode, we’ll be chatting about kids and mobile devices. We’ll share some tips and tactics as well as apps that will help you set limits, restrictions, and monitor how your kids are using phones and tablets.
It’s exciting to see we’re coming up on our sixth year in business. I’m even more excited to tell you about our upcoming online course for 3rd-5th graders. First, I wanted to tell you a story.
TechWise started out for me as a way to do something fun with my oldest son. I am a software engineer and knew that there were some good tools (designed for kids) to make games and animations. I thought he would have fun and was sure that I would have fun during the process. I also knew that computer programming was a very high-demand job and paid well. During our initial sessions, I began to see the power of coding to do so much more.
I began researching how we, human beings, learn. As a father of four, I was able to directly see the various stages of development in my own children. The more I got into the research of Educational Psychology, the more I was convinced that coding was an answer to many deficits in learning:
I experienced this firsthand as a father.
My oldest son has been an anxious kid all his life. Maybe it’s being the first-born. Maybe our lack of parental knowledge contributed. Who knows? What I do know is that being stuck on a problem caused a mini shut down. He has a lot of his mom’s genes so he’s a smart kid, but if the problem wasn’t in his current skill set, then struggling through to find the answer was likely not going to happen.
I had a proud dad moment as I watched him code his own video game in Roblox this past year (after years of trying and learning programming). His game didn’t work right away and there were several bugs. However, each time, he came up with solutions to these problems and researched them on his own. If that solution didn’t work, he found another. If he didn’t understand how something worked, he read articles and created a completely different game with which to experiment. I would sometimes give general guidance, but his solutions were often a completely different way of solving it than my own (YES!).
Coding has given him the toolset of knowing he doesn’t have to know all of the answers right away. However, he is developing the methods to figure out the answers on his own. That’s what I want for all children and why I’m so passionate about teaching coding to children at a very young age. That’s what I focus on in our new online course.
About that course, I’m excited to tell you it’s going live on June 1! School is wrapping up, and you might be looking for something for your kids to do. After the school year we’ve experienced, you might be concerned about subject retention. These are all valid concerns.
Our online course is for beginner coders, grades 3 through 5, and we’ll be using Scratch as the delivery. Students will be able to create a gravity-based game, like Angry Birds. There are a little over 2 hours of video instruction, broken up over 10-15 minute lessons, so your child can progress at his or her speed. You can also take the class anywhere with an internet connection so if you have wifi and want to take the class outside, you can.
We are also providing parents a companion course so you can learn along with your child and know what to ask them as they work through it. Learning is the primary goal. The fun just comes with it.
Sincerely,
Ryan Hunter, Co-Founder, TechWise Academy
We get a lot of questions from parents about which version of Minecraft are right for their kids.
We cover Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, Minecraft: Java Edition, and Minecraft: Education Edition.
Microsoft MakeCode is a great tool to teach kids to learn how to code and the principles of computer programming.
Microsoft MakeCode has a lot of built in logic to create arcade style games or “retro games” even parents might recognize. Kids can even try the code conversion tool to show how their block code changes to an official coding language.
Kids can work through the logic of programming without getting hung up on technical syntax. The block-based coding allows kids can think about the logic first and try different options to solve them. Computer programming for kids allow them to break down complex problems to solve them.