Coding for Kids
We’re excited to introduce our newest Featured Maker, 10-year-old Owen from Texas! Like a lot of kids his age, he loves drawing, reading and playing basketball but when he grows up he has aspirations of becoming a computer programmer. With a little help from Tynker, he’ll be able to do just that! Let’s get to Owen and hear more about his coding journey!
How did you get introduced to Tynker and how long have you been coding? I’ve been coding for probably two years. I got introduced to Tynker because my dad had a friend whose son did Tynker, and so he decided to just try it out for me. It took me a little while to get into it but once I did it a little more I loved it!
How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? What are your favorite Tynker courses or tutorials? I started out on a computer and I did some of those miniature game things that sort of teach you the basics of Tynker!
How have your coding skills improved since you started using Tynker? Quite a lot! I’ve been getting a lot better since I first started, I didn’t know anything when I started! The first coding thing that I didn’t quite get was variables, but then I did Tynker tutorials and I figured it out!
How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured? I felt like, “Whoa!” It felt crazy, I couldn’t believe it!
What is your favorite project you’ve made so far and what do you like about it? Well, one of my favorite projects is called the Stick Adventure series. There’s three different Stick Adventures, and there’s three different games with a bunch of different types of monsters and bosses and it’s really cool!
Where did you get the idea for your favorite project and how long did it take you to make? The idea I got for Stick Adventure was actually from a game called Stick Quest. It’s a game that was crazy and everybody liked it, so I decided to make something similar to it and I called it Stick Adventure!
How do you get inspiration for your projects? I usually get inspiration from either my best friend or the community!
Why do you like to code? I just really like it, because it’s fun and I love to create!
What is your favorite way to use code? I like to use variables a lot, now that I’ve learned them, they’re really nice in coding. And probably the most is moving blocks because I’m always moving, or broadcast!
What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? Depending on what project it is, I’ll usually just publish it immediately!
What are you planning to make next? I don’t quite know, actually. I just finished 2-3 games yesterday, so I’m done with those and I need to get new inspiration!
What’s the best thing about Tynker? The best thing about Tynker is being able to make your own thing and just being able to share it with other people too, and then they can show you if they like it or not and I just like it a lot!
Is there anything we should change or add to Tynker? Well, I was thinking the sound library is kind of small. I was thinking, you could make it a tiny bit bigger! And another thing is that the computer has a lot of different things that the iPad just doesn’t have. I was thinking you could maybe have some of those on the iPad, because that’s what I use most of my coding on!
How do you think learning to code has prepared you for the future? I’m not exactly sure, but I know that it is helping me and that I’m getting a good start!
Do you think other kids should try coding? Sure, because I think that coding is a fun thing for a lot of people. Plus, I bet there’s probably going to be more coding in the future because of robots and a bunch of different things!
What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? Just try to start out with the basics and don’t be trying to do something big at the very start, because my brother is trying to start out doing coding but he’s not very good at it and he wants to make these epic projects, so I’m pretty much just telling him what to do and he’s just dragging the blocks!
After we spoke to Owen, his dad Ian joined in on the conversation to talk to us about how he feels about Owen learning to code, how he supports him, and the skills and benefits he observes Owen absorbing from learning to code with Tynker. “It’s exciting to me because a lot of these things typically have a pretty high learning curve, and you’re really allowing kids to see the experience and the enjoyment of it without this huge barrier to the learning curve.”
Ian continued, “I think in preparation for a career path, it gives them a very good feel for if they want to be more focused on the front end and the graphics and a user interface where they want to be more on the back end or do they want to do both – it’s a really awesome platform.”
Ian bought a Python book for Owen that he’s been reading and going through to understand advanced concepts, but ultimately Tynker was the platform that led them to that. Ian observes so many benefits for Owen saying, “I think it’s just across the board. There’s many different things, the analytical ability, the debugging ability and just being able to understand the debugging process and expect that things will not work, and to not become overly frustrated when they don’t. That’s just part of the process to go back and figure it out and that’s the problem solving puzzle and the reward of figuring it out. Once you figure out why it’s not working, that’s a huge skill to be able to master that when being so young.”
When asked if Owen is better prepared for the future, Ian agreed, crediting the ability for problem solving, creativity, collaborating with others that Tynker brings to the table.We want to thank Owen and Ian for taking the time to speak with us about their experience with Tynker! We are looking forward to more projects from Owen. Happy coding!
