Technology has evolved so quickly and now plays such a central role in every type of commercial activity that for current and future generations, coding is a skill that is as essential as literacy and numeracy.
But, as coding is not currently being widely covered in schools, how do we encourage our children to get started?
One option might be to send them on a tech camp during the summer holidays.
Sheineez Barber is the founder of FunTech, a company that operates a number of daytime and residential weeklong holiday tech camps across London, teaching computer science, technology, coding and mathematics. She has been running FunTech for 22 years and she and her team have taught thousands of children how to code.
She has some excellent advice on the ways in which learning to code will benefit your child, and how a tech camp this summer will not only provide them with a memorable and fun holiday experience, but also equip them with skills that will give them a head start when they return to school.
Prepares your child for the future
Children who know how to code will be able to communicate across countries and cultures and will be innovative and able to solve problems more efficiently. Learning how to code at a young age will help your children solve everyday problems and set them up for a lifetime of opportunities.
Develops skills for life
Just like learning to ride a bike, learning how to code is easier when you’re young. Learning how to code is getting easier, more interesting and lots more fun, thanks to the use of cutting-edge technology, expert tutors and an approach that uses play to drive the learning. Instead of spending hours studying the specifics of a coding language, your child can master the basics by using games and apps that they find naturally more engaging and enjoyable. And if your child feels successful at getting a computer to do what they tell it to, it can give them a foundation for a lifetime of successful use of technology in their everyday life.
Changes the way they think
Learning to code will introduce your child to computational thinking, which is the ability to communicate your thoughts in a structured and logical way. A combination of advanced mathematics, algorithms and logic, computational thinking involves considering a problem and breaking it down into single-action steps that are handled in the most efficient way possible. Being introduced to this approach as they learn coding will encourage your child to think about the world in a completely different way.
Encourages and develops creative thinking
Children have creative, fluid minds that makes it easy for them to ‘think outside the box’. The almost limitless ways to code and solve problems will inspire and encourage your child’s development. They will start to see coding as a type of storytelling that allows them to explore their creativity and fires their imagination. Learning these skills can also help your child be more successful in their written and oral communication at school and enable them to flourish academically.
Opens up better job opportunities
The current generation of children will need to be literate in technology if they are going to be competitive in the future job market. Not knowing how to code when they leave school will be as restrictive as being illiterate or innumerate is in the current climate. Most jobs require basic IT skills and the ability to use technology confidently and efficiently is a prerequisite of most roles in business. And of course, if your child maintains their interest in programming, coding specialists are already well paid and highly sought after and opportunities for such skilled employees is only going to expand in the future.
Structured learning that feels like fun
FunTech’s coding camps are tailored for each individual child but they are also structured and enjoyable. We don’t just let children play on a computer for the week: we teach them relevant skills using an environment they will engage with so their learning is given a context and it feels like fun. For example, if you mention Minecraft to a youngster they get very excited, so we have taken an environment that children love and developed a curriculum that teaches them high-level electronics. The children eagerly consume the content and think they are playing, but in fact they are learning some very complex electronics—many of the concepts that we teach in our Minecraft Redstone camp are what our A-Level Computing students are taught!
A memorable experience with lasting benefits
A weeklong camp could provide your child with the opportunity to enhance their coding and programming skills while getting to grips with cutting-edge technology. And as well as a week’s worth of fun and enjoyment and some new friendships, they will come home with new skills and knowledge that will prepare them for their next academic year and beyond.
FunTech has a great range of tech camps for children from age 7 to 16 running at a number of venues in London this summer, including Canary Wharf, Dulwich, Finchley Road, Northwood, Richmond, St Albans, Watford and Westminster, plus other locations across the UK at Chester, Maidenhead, Reading and Tonbridge.
For more information, see their website: www.funtechsummercamps.com
This is a sponsored posting.
