Jarryd Loves to Code!

Our Featured Maker this week is Jarryd, who lives in South Africa and is nine years old! Outside of school Jarryd likes to code, and when he grows up he want to be a coder. His favorite subjects in school are robotics and (no surprise here) coding!

Jarryd excels at math; he’s three years ahead of his grade, an advantage that Jarryd’s dad Brenden attributes to learning how to code. Jarryd loves to code games with his brothers, and his dad is excited that Jarryd can practice coding in a safe online environment like Tynker. We caught up with Jarryd to learn more about his coding experience!

How did you get introduced to Tynker?  Well, I have this IT group at my school that sends us a bunch of apps that are from my school and one of them is Tynker. I’ve been coding for about 4 or 5 months.

How did you learn how to use Tynker when you were first starting out? I had a little help with some of my friends. I used a lot of Tynker courses and tutorials.

How did you feel when you found out your project had been featured? Out of this world!

What is your favorite project you’ve made so far? A project on my iPad that I named Riddle Game. It’s my most popular game!

Where do you get the idea for Riddle Game? How long did it take you to make? I don’t know where I got the idea from! It took me about 2 days to make.

“Riddle Game”

Why do you like to code? Because I like making other people feel happy!

What is your favorite way to use code? Do you have a favorite code block? My favorite code block is AR and I like to make projects that use math!

“AR Coding with Jarryd”

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I edit it just in case I have anything bad in it.

What’s the best thing about Tynker? I do like some of the projects a lot.

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yeah. Coding is important!

What advice would you give to kids starting out with Tynker? AR, math, Pokemon games! Start with those!

Jarryd’s dad Brenden gave us some insight into what learning to code has been like for Jarryd. He says it started with the opportunities that Jarryd’s school offers: “He’s privileged enough to go to a school where they offer coding as a co-curricular, together with robotics.” One thing that Brenden really likes about Tynker is the digital environment it provides, where kids can practice coding without worrying about their online safety.  As he explained, “It’s important from my side as a dad to make sure that it’s clean, that it’s harmless! And that’s why I appreciate Tynker, because they would scan everything, it’s not that they’re going to allow the kids to go into other things and become preyed victims, on a portal where they can mix with loads of people.” Not only does Tynker provide that safe environment that every child deserves, but it’s also an environment that fosters positivity. Brenden told us that Jarryd thrives on seeing other users’ likes and the number of views he gets on a project.

When we asked Jarryd’s dad if he thought coding is helping prepare Jarryd for the future, Brenden responded enthusiastically! “Oh, absolutely! We support him in loving it and he’s free to use the wifi at home and code as long as he wants and publish!”

We’re so excited to hear that! Thanks for talking to us, Jarryd and Brenden. We loved hearing more about your experience with learning how to code, Jarryd, and we can’t wait to see what projects you come up with next!