Coding for Kids
Meet our newest Featured Maker, 5th grader Kayla from California! Kayla likes art, especially abstract art. She’s also into Jujitsu, Muay Thai, and Judo. Plus, she likes to surf and play soccer. Though when she grows up, she’d like to be a veterinarian!
Kayla recently talked with us about her experience coding with Tynker:
How did you get introduced to Tynker?
In the third grade in our Tynker class!
How did you learn to use Tynker?
I looked at the code in some games and remixed them!
How have your coding skills improved since you started using Tynker?
I didn’t know how to use the show dialogue one, but now I know how!
How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured?
Good! I told all my friends and family!
What is the favorite project you’ve made so far?
I made a game called Heal the Dog and you have to help it by giving it bandages and medicine! When you press done there’s another patient!
Where did you get the idea for your project?
Because I want to be a vet! It took me one day!
How do you get inspiration for your projects?
I see what other people make.
Why do you like to code?
I like to make games and be creative!
What do you do with a project when you’re done with it?
I play it to see if it is good or if I should add anything else!
What are you planning to make next?
I just made a mermaid one! It’s called, The Little Mermaid.
What’s the best thing about Tynker?
Making projects!
Do you think other kids should try coding?
Yeah, because it’s fun and if you don’t know how games are made, you can code the game on Tynker, and then you’ll know how to make a real game!
Kayla’s dad, Geoffrey, spoke to us about his daughter coding:
I love that she codes. It’s a great way of learning because it helps you follow the process step by step and if something doesn’t work you have to back it up and find out what’s wrong, and then you get to use your imagination to make anything that you can think of.
You want to have something that doesn’t exist, you can figure out how to do it and build it so like she talked about her art. She’s very creative and she’s really good at math. So combining the way of thinking with math and how to process with creativity, I think it’s been the perfect outlet for her and she really really enjoys it.
She loves doing all these projects and looking and reverse engineering. She’ll find projects that people did that maybe aren’t that popular and then she’ll say, well they should have added this, then she’ll take some of the code and then make it a lot better.
What benefits do you think coding has for Kayla?
It just teaches the learning process and how you can’t just skip ahead to something. You have to make sure you do the steps for everything like when you’re cooking or something like that. If you skip a step, you’re gonna have to go back and fix it and then being detail-oriented really helps her in math and other subjects where she has to go through those processes.
Do you feel that your child is better prepared for the future?
Oh definitely, especially a world that is really technology-oriented and now that we’re all doing remote learning and the computers are even more of a part of everyone’s life than it was a year ago. Being a coder is a huge advantage; it opens a lot of opportunities for her in the future.
And if she could become a coder she can go to the beach and sit with her laptop at the beach and code, you don’t have to go to an office building. You don’t have to sit in traffic, you can be free and code anywhere.
She’s interested in Java and other things like that. She just wants to keep adding into her little toolbox because then the more languages you learn, the more games you could build. So, it’s definitely a great base for the future. Yeah, the opportunities are endless at this point.
Thank you!
We want to thank Kayla and her dad for taking the time to speak with us about coding with Tynker. We’re looking forward to more projects from Kayla – HAPPY CODING!
