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For learning computer programming, has anyone used codecademy.com?


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A mom just told me about this site and I haven't registered or worked on it myself.  It is free and that works great for me.  I am concerned about safety on line for him.    Also, I am concerned about the content in a subject that I don't know anything about.  Has anyone used this?

 

Also, any other suggestions?  I am open, but it must be reasonably priced.

 

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Another suggestion:  http://scratch.mit.edu/

 

It might look a little young for a 13 y.o. but it might be a good place to start.  My newly-13 dd still plays around on it and my ds11s use it extensively.

 

Eta, I am not kidding, just now one of my boys said he wanted to show me something really cool, and it was codeacademy, ha!!  I thought they already knew about it, but maybe I'm remembering something else.

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Code.com is one my ds10 has used some. He also has used gamesalad.com quite a bit. We bought the pro membership and extra "stuff" through the homeschool buyers co-op, but there is a free membership too that works the same I believe, but with a little less "support". We've never used the support and won't be renewing the membership...I was mainly paying for the extra file downloads when we bought it last year.

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Ok, my 3rd grader is programming-obsessed. She cited computer programmer as her chosen profession since age 5 and has not changed since (she'll be 9 in a few weeks.) She has tried it ALL.

 

Codecademy - she liked it for a while, but says the site is unstable and glitchy

 

Khan Academy - very stable and lots to learn from in the computer programming section. Basically Javascript. This is where my little programmer got her start, but back then Scratch was less satisfying. (It's much improved now.. see below.)

 

Scratch - a great place to start, but it is a visual language as has limitations - but kids like it because they can get satisfying game-like results very quickly. Once she had a Scratch book, she got a lot more out of it. Another bonus is the latest versions of Scratch are set up like social networking. Kids being able to comment on, view, and modify each other's work really adds something to the entire effort, and even my non-programmy child has enjoyed messing with it. If you're worried about your child being on an online community - don't here. Really. I mean, of course remind your child about internet safety, but the Scratch community is truly just a bunch of kid nerds and I've watched it quite carefully and have never seen anything inappropriate.

 

Code Avengers -she didn't last more than a day on it, so I guess it sucked, or at least did at the time we tried it.

 

CodeSpells - is a multiplayer game where players have to code their own spells --- and it sadly, it kinda stinks. She was so looking forward to this one, but it fell flat. We keep hoping development will result in improvement, but their blog hasn't been updated in a year so we're not holding out much hope.

 

Learnstreet - her newest addition - she says it's like a more stable version of Codecademy and very user friendly.

 

Also, she has a book "Python for Kids" and uses Python on her computer. She recognizes this as the coding she does that she has the most ownership over, but for showing off and sharing it's less impressive.

 

Hope that helps!

 

 

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My ds had great experiences on Codeacademy.  He learned tons.  Has pretty much done it all very quickly.  Received great feedback from the moderators.  A very positive experience for him.  Dd is also working her way through Codeacademy happily.  She has no programming aspirations but is pretty picky about her online experiences and has no complaints. 

 

Coursera also has some classes that have gone well for Dd when your son gets some experience.  The python one from Rice is one several WTM boarding dc's have enjoyed.  Ds liked it overall but python is not his preferred language so......

 

Has moved on to Java.  Has done the free courses from MIT and Stanford.  

 

All of what I have mentioned is free online. 

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My son started learing to code with codecademy and Khan Academy last year. He has progressed in leaps and bounds since then. He found Scratch after Khan Academy and codecademy but he recommends kids to start with Scratch. My husband has written a series of posts on teaching kids to code if you are interested. http://airskull.com/coding/ With specifically codecademy and Khan Academy here http://airskull.com/learn-to-code-javascript/

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