Has anyone started a coding club for their DC?

[Porridge]

Has anyone started a coding club for their DC? There used to be some CoderDojos in our area, but they seem to be defunct since the pandemic.  

I tried starting one last year. There was a ton of interest, lots of people saying they'd bring their kids, but we were lucky to get even one person to show up. I know the usual advice - if you want people to show up, charge them $.  I don't feel I can charge for it, because I wouldn't be offering instruction. It would be a time for kids to share their projects and talk about code and "parallel play" (haha -- aka sit side by side and code).

I'm also not sure whether to make it drop off, or whether I should require parents to stay.  (I wonder if we'd get more people if it was drop off). At what age (for the child) would you be ok with the parent dropping them off? CoderDojo says kids 12 and under have to be accompanied by a parent. I feel hesitant to do drop off even for kids older than 12, because wouldn't I implicitly be assuming responsibility for their kid?

If you have any experience or tips, I would be very appreciative.

[GoVanGogh]

I tried to start one about six years ago. I wanted it to be a self study, teen-led group. I didn’t get any response from people my child’s age. I got a ton of response from moms with much younger kids that wanted a drop-off activity, which is not what I envisioned. I didn’t want to “babysit” or monitor younger kids. Shortly after, our county’s 4-H club, which we had not previously been involved in, split off and formed a STEM club. We went to the introductory meeting, which was awful and my child begged me not to make them go back. I insisted we try one more meeting. At this meeting, the club decided to compete in robotics. My child was hooked. It was such an amazing experience and blessing. The team competed in competitions around our state and won many tournaments, including a nice scholarship at one event. All of the team members are now in college, studying related fields and still great friends. My child is studying software engineering, another is studying mechanical engineering, all are in STEM fields. I am so thankful this turned up when it did, as it fulfilled my child’s need to be around like minded individuals. 

[Lecka]

My 17yo is getting into Linux right now.  
 

This is very much the youngest age he would be independent with something like this.  It just is.  
 

I think there are definitely kids who have this as an interest and can do it independently at a younger age, but I think it is a lot fewer than kids where it “sounds cool” or where parents think “oh I bet my child would like this” but then when seeing that it would be — what comes across as very independent to me, realize it’s not realistically going to be a good fit.

 

I think for the right kid it would be great, though.  
 

I’m not sure if my son is even coding versus learning to use Linux, but he is currently really interested in how to do things he does in different ways, with Linux, to find out what is the best way.  

It’s kind-of new for him, he just installed it maybe two months ago now.  He would not have been able to do this on his own until — basically his current maturity level.  
 

I also think, it’s possible he’s going to figure out how to do everything he wants to do, and then just be done.  Because I’m wondering that, it would make it hard for me to want to make a commitment when he might not “really” be interested.

 

Anyway I can see why it would be hard to find people.  I bet there would be people out there, though, it’s just — I think a lot of younger kids would more realistically be doing something that was more structured and organized for them.  
 

Also, my husband and I can’t help him with it, and so he does have to be independent, and this is the youngest age he can be independent and — I think he asked permission before getting Linux on his computer but I’m not sure.  I don’t know if we would have said “sure, download Linux,” since we wouldn’t know how to use it or how to help him with it.

So I think there are also kids out there who have parents or siblings who can help them out if they get stuck on something, or show them something, which does make it possible at a younger age.  That is not the case for us, though, and it’s another thing that would make it “sound cool” but then not be realistic. 
 

 

 

 

[TechWife]

Random thoughts.

I wonder if a club started by kids would get more traction than one started by parents?

What do you want the club to do? Random meetings aren’t usually enjoyable or productive. There needs to be a goal - one participants buy into - preferably choose. 

Have you tried to find someone who might be willing to mentor your son instead of finding a group of age peers?

Do you need to look for a class of some kind for your son to enroll in? Sometimes informal smaller groups form out of classes. 

In all honesty, I wouldn’t have taken my kid to a subject specific club that was adult led where the adult didn’t have a minimum level of expertise on the subject matter. 

 

[Arcadia]

7 hours ago, Lecka said:

My 17yo is getting into Linux right now.  
 

This is very much the youngest age he would be independent with something like this.  It just is.  
 

DS16 installed Fedora Linux on an old MacBook and used that for classes for more than a year. I have Red Hat Enterprise Linux running on an old laptop. I am taking a community college class which help prep for a certification since mine was 22 years ago and they expire after 3 years. If he needs help or more info, just PM me. 

[catz]

I've taught a few coding classes to tweens and teens that have spun off to some social events (I was a software engineer in a past life).  I think what happens is kids get excited about coding but if they're not doing a class or something, they tend to burn out and lose steam pretty fast.  That doesn't mean you have to teach.  You could like pick something basic on Udemy to follow along with for under $30 and recommend everyone spend a few hours with it at least between sessions.  Actually if a parent had to pay for a program, there might be more motivation to stick with it.  I wouldn't blame you charging for meet up either.  Our local homeschoolers tend to be very flakey if they aren't paying for something.    One of my best classes was a Unity video game programming class (which is C# programming language) and one thing that ended up being great about it was some kids newer to coding just stuck to basics and I had some kids diving into what I would have labeled college level projects.  They self paced.  And then kids started collaborating over time.  Several of the kids in that class ended up doing CS in college.  

I do think some beginning programming options are just SO dry.  Like I really do not like the AP CS sequence.  I mean it is good info and it's real and CS in college is hard and can be dry.  I just think there are way better ways to engage young people and teach those concepts.  

Also, my ages on this were 13+ and completed algebra for the real type out code style programming.  Prior to that, I think it's pretty frustrating.  Though I did do a scratch option for like younger, there are options that are less frustrating and more kid friendly.  If you do allow a drop off, I'd e-mail students and copy parents weekly just letting them know what happened and what you expect them to do for next week.  

[Arcadia]

15 hours ago, WTM said:

 

I tried starting one last year. There was a ton of interest, lots of people saying they'd bring their kids, but we were lucky to get even one person to show up. I know the usual advice - if you want people to show up, charge them $.  

I feel hesitant to do drop off even for kids older than 12, because wouldn't I implicitly be assuming responsibility for their kid?

Regarding drop off, book a study room at a library. For unpopular times, you could usually book for two consecutive hours. That would remove the liability from you. I would not drop off my kids at a friend’s home unless they are what we regard as our emergency babysitters. CoderDojo is different because they meet at facilities which already have corporate insurance.

 Since we are in the same general region, I think the issue is that parents are willing to pay big bucks for the competition training to increase chances of getting into the team for computing Olympiad. Those who aren’t willing to pay would be hunting for freebies like the libraries’ programming events, hackathons, Coursera. The library events are usually full house and often have waitlists.  
So you are basically looking at parents who are willing to pay and maybe think of it as babysitting, or parents who think of you as free babysitting if you aren’t charging. CodeNinja has parents night out (https://www.codeninjas.com/ca-cupertino/parents-night-out?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2tSw0sfE-gIVMQ6tBh2AjgjwEAAYASACEgKvh_D_BwE). Maybe check with them how much they charge so you have an idea how much parents are willing to pay.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, TechWife said:

Random thoughts.

I wonder if a club started by kids would get more traction than one started by parents?

What do you want the club to do? Random meetings aren’t usually enjoyable or productive. There needs to be a goal - one participants buy into - preferably choose. 

Have you tried to find someone who might be willing to mentor your son instead of finding a group of age peers?

Do you need to look for a class of some kind for your son to enroll in? Sometimes informal smaller groups form out of classes. 

In all honesty, I wouldn’t have taken my kid to a subject specific club that was adult led where the adult didn’t have a minimum level of expertise on the subject matter. 

 

Good points!

Having the kids start the club would be great, but DC isn’t able to do that yet.

DS mostly wants friends to share ideas and passion with.

We’ve tried classes. When we put DS in age appropriate classes, he maxed out all the curriculum very quickly (actually also maxed out their high school offerings), then got bored and played (good natured) pranks on the teacher. But he doesn’t have the maturity to function in classes for older age groups yet (or at least we haven’t found one where his maturity level could match). He also has some LDs, when coupled with the age /maturity mismatch…it just hasn’t seemed tenable at this point.

We have tried finding mentor / tutor. 

It’s helpful to hear your last point — that makes sense. 

(Please don’t quote )

Edited October 3, 2022 by WTM

[Arcadia]

If the main aim is social, try hackathons. You might end up making friends with other parents and start coding “play dates”. My teens interact with other coders online but maturity is of course an issue. However once they are 13, they could easily get their own email accounts and also get onto Discord servers without our knowledge so it is a sooner or later issue.

E.g. https://www.unitehacks.com

https://xrhacks.org

 

[Clarita]

Pre-pandemic I volunteered for a robotics club at a local middle school. I really liked how the person who set it up did it. There was a general cookie cutter put this circuit together and code features on to it. So your typical student just followed a formula, gain "exposure" and was able to complete the steps. The project though was just an arduino thing so nothing preventing a more advanced student from experimenting beyond the original scope. 

Maybe you could see if you can pair up with a coding/robotics club at a Public School see where that leads. Programs like this at public schools are sometimes very good because they get top notch volunteers. Then the school will do all the background check and liability stuff. It's a toss up whether the teacher or the school will be amenable to that. 

[Hilltopmom]

20 hours ago, GoVanGogh said:

I tried to start one about six years ago. I wanted it to be a self study, teen-led group. I didn’t get any response from people my child’s age. I got a ton of response from moms with much younger kids that wanted a drop-off activity, which is not what I envisioned. I didn’t want to “babysit” or monitor younger kids. Shortly after, our county’s 4-H club, which we had not previously been involved in, split off and formed a STEM club. We went to the introductory meeting, which was awful and my child begged me not to make them go back. I insisted we try one more meeting. At this meeting, the club decided to compete in robotics. My child was hooked. It was such an amazing experience and blessing. The team competed in competitions around our state and won many tournaments, including a nice scholarship at one event. All of the team members are now in college, studying related fields and still great friends. My child is studying software engineering, another is studying mechanical engineering, all are in STEM fields. I am so thankful this turned up when it did, as it fulfilled my child’s need to be around like minded individuals. 

All of this! First Robotics (through 4H but also in public schools and other club settings) got my kid hooked on this stuff and it’s now his career, as well as several of his team mates. I can’t say enough good stuff about the First program. The opportunities to go to events all over (including the World Championships) was awesome. 

He now volunteers for First running the big regional and local events.

[daijobu]

+1 for organizing team-type meet ups to prepare for First or maybe USACO.  I'll bet a lot of parents won't really understand what a coding club or dojo would look like.  

I tried to organize a math club, and it didn't get off the ground.  I had better luck organizing a MathCounts team, where I charged a nominal bit of money and I led the classes and got them prepared.  Later my kids led the math teams.  Still, it was always a struggle to recruit enough people to participate.  

[Hilltopmom]

Just coming back to add that running a First Robotics team would be a big undertaking- you’d need at least another adult or 2 and kids who could commit to many hours per week. During peak crunch times, ds was there every night for hours.  But totally worth it, imo

[catz]

4 hours ago, Hilltopmom said:

Just coming back to add that running a First Robotics team would be a big undertaking- you’d need at least another adult or 2 and kids who could commit to many hours per week. During peak crunch times, ds was there every night for hours.  But totally worth it, imo

These are fantastic if you can get involved.  But the start up costs are high.  Like a basic kit runs about $1000.  Season registration is like $300.  I had looked into it at one point but between start up costs and the general flakey nature of our homeschool community I was put off by it.  

https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc/cost-and-registration#:~:text=A reusable robot kit of,remote FIRST Tech Challenge events.

We do have local homeschool kids though that have been able to participate on a school team and maybe one sponsored by a 4H group, though I think it was a huge undertaking to get that off the ground too.  Some schools get like corporate/business sponsors to get their clubs off the ground.  

Edited October 4, 2022 by catz

[Hilltopmom]

1 hour ago, catz said:

These are fantastic if you can get involved.  But the start up costs are high.  Like a basic kit runs about $1000.  Season registration is like $300.  I had looked into it at one point but between start up costs and the general flakey nature of our homeschool community I was put off by it.  

https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc/cost-and-registration#:~:text=A reusable robot kit of,remote FIRST Tech Challenge events.

We do have local homeschool kids though that have been able to participate on a school team and maybe one sponsored by a 4H group, though I think it was a huge undertaking to get that off the ground too.  Some schools get like corporate/business sponsors to get their clubs off the ground.  

Yea, we got start up funds from 4H but had to do a ton of fundraising and lots of grant writing to fund it. Large local stem businesses helped a lot but grants were where the bigger $ came from. The kids did pretty frequent talks to local groups to request donations a d got very good and presenting and asking for money- places like the rotary club, etc