Coding for Kids
Featured Maker: Tanner Wants To Be an Engineer!
Meet our newest Featured Maker, 7th grader Tanner from California! He likes to play games and code, and when he gets older he’d like to be an electrical or mechanical engineer. Great! Tanner recently spoke with us about his experience coding with Tynker.
How did you learn to use Tynker when you were first starting out?
I just looked at the Tynker community and figured it out. We’re thinking of doing Python next year for school.
What’s your favorite project you’ve made so far?
I kind of like the one that got featured – the Calculator – because I can just update it for what I learned.
How do you get inspiration for your projects?
I look at the community or just it comes to mind.
Why do you like to code?
It gives me something to do.
What’s your favorite way to use code?
I like the network block. I made a web searcher. You’re able to look up the background of a website.
What do you do with a project when you’re done with it?
Debug it, publish it, and then show it to my mom.
What are you planning to make next?
A 3D game kit. You use a thumbstick to look around. I’m just making a shooter game off of it by just using the kit.
What’s the best thing about Tynker?
The community.
Has learning to code prepared you for the future?
Probably because I like to code stuff. I coded the Calculator. I made something that helps me brush my teeth for a certain amount of time. There’s an app for it, but there’s just a lot of glitches so I just made a Tynker code.
Do you think other kids should try coding?
Yes because you can do anything.
What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker?
Don’t give up. That’s definitely one.
What’s your favorite school subject?
I love math because it’s straightforward.
Bonus: What’s a fun fact about you?
I watched an hour-long video on just fun facts.
Parent Questions
Tanner’s mother, Robyn, spoke with us about her son learning to code with Tynker:
I’m impressed. I was happy to see that. He just took it up on his own. I’m an electrical engineer. My husband programs. So I wanted to start him early, and he just took off on his own. It made it easy that I don’t have to teach him.
How did he get introduced to Tynker?
My cousin is the computer teacher at an elementary school, and I was asking her because he’s homeschooled about coding and stuff. And she’s the one that pointed me to Tynker.
What benefits do you think coding has for Tanner?
Just logic. I think it helps a lot and even math and just the whole logic behind it as well as being able to create something, a tool that you need or could benefit from.
Do you feel that he’s better prepared for the future?
Because of programming, yeah, for sure.
How do you support his coding endeavors?
I have fun with his apps. I use his toothbrush one. Just seeing him being able to make his life easier by programming something to help it.
What do you think of Tynker?
I think it’s great. It’s simple to use. He’s been able to figure it all out on his own. He didn’t want anybody holding his hands. He didn’t want anybody telling him what to program. He’s just got his own mind and wanted to do his own thing and having an application with the ability to do that was good.
Thank you!
We want to thank Tanner and his mother for taking the time to speak with us about coding with Tynker. We can’t wait to see what she creates next – HAPPY CODING!
