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20 Free and Paid Websites for Kids
Computer Programming is considered a basic literacy in this Di-Tec (digital-tech) world.
Learning Computer Science from the early stages of Instruction is the most excellent choice to communicate the significance of Computer programming, “because 71% of all the total employments in STEM (Science, Innovation, Building, and Science) are in computing”. Other than Coding proficiency, learning Computer programming from a younger age develops so many soft skills like Problem-Solving, Sharp Memory, Self-Motivation, Independence, Perseverance, etc.
A survey in the US showed that almost 90% of parents want their children to learn computer coding, although the majority of our teachers in the professional education program have no prior experience in teaching programming. And some of them still unaware of how important is coding in our Kids.
One of the best ways for our children to computer programming is coding websites and Educators. Just look towards some of the best free and paid websites for different age groups of kids, to develop coding skills.
In Elementary Level:
Scratch
Scratch is a free Visual programming language, developed by MIT’s Media Lab, which is particularly focused on children between the ages of 8 to 16 to develop their own interactive stories and games. Although a simplified version of Scratch, Scratch Jr, a drag-and-drop system, is available for children from the age of 5 to 7.
This platform is also available offline for Windows, macOS, ChromeOS, and Android, and it is the best place to nurturing kid’s imaginations, they can build games, animation, stories, anything, they dreamed of through Scratch. This is block-based programming, i.e. projects creates on the web using a block-like interface, and no obscure lines of code are involved here.
In advance, Scratch created itself as a Growing online community, to support the learners and swap ideas and inspiration.
Swift Playgrounds
“Learn serious code, in a seriously fun way.” is the slogan of Swift. This powerful platform is developed by Apple, to teach kids aged 6 and up furthermore it is 100% free and available on Mac and iPad.
Swift Playgrounds is interactive and fun, and this is perfect for students, just start to learn to code. Learning through Swift is engaging, by solving interactive puzzles with guides then leads to complex levels, where one can learn widely about coding.
Code.org
“Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science”, Yes…!; the non-profit organization Code.org reassures its vision for kids from K-12! .This is an excellent platform for the novices,
includes basics of programming, online resources, lessons on coding real apps, websites, and games using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other advanced programming languages, with 100% free of cost.
Code.org possesses a series of 4 courses, intentioned for different proficiency students. The four series-courses make up an ISTE standard curriculum that has been designed for classroom education. Each course is created with videos, puzzles, and interactive activities moreover at the end of each course, fun hands-on experiments practice the students all they learned and understand the concept. If you are in a rush, try Hour of Code, a one-hour tutorial of Code.org, designed for all ages.
Blockly
Blockly is a series of educational games, kenned as “games for tomorrow’s developers” and is aims at kids above 8 years old. This web-based program is the best platform to start to learn coding in a fun and interactive way that is purely free. Blockly consists of eight variety games, made using the actual programming language, Blockly (block-based programming language introduces JavaScript) and at the end of these games, players are ready to use conventional text-based languages.
The goal of kids is to complete a story by solving puzzles through a drag-and-drop (which is similar to a sequence of code here), in this way they can encourage children to keep playing to keep advancing. One main advantage here is kids can see the results of their program instantaneously and this is the best and simple way to learn coding in a fun way.
Tynker
Tynker is also a gamified programming fun for children to develop and grow their capabilities with computers. Tynker is a self-paced online programming course, in which sample coding lessons are free of cost, however, the complete customized lessons for various age groups are paid. And the pricing starts from $20/month and various discounts are available at the site. Among the ages 5 to 7, they taught coding through voice instructions, whereas 8 to 13-year-olds by drag and drop coding and finally over 14 years real-world coding such as Python and JavaScript are trained. So this is a trusted method for the kids to learn real-world programs like Python and JavaScript. Tynker is not providing a structured curriculum, so kids can learn at their own pace.
Code Monkey
Founded in 2014 by the Code Monkey Platform is intended to teach coding to children aged between 4 to 11 through online games. The theme of this game-based learning program is to help a monkey to retrieve its bananas stolen by a gorilla! Children draft code to help the monkey to collect back the bananas. Through progressive challenges to help monkeys, kids can be able to code and build their games. The overall story and puzzles include all the concepts of coding and the code is text-based, CoffeeScript, which is similar to English but compiles within JavaScript.
CodeMonkey offers a free 30-day trial and, a paid version is available with 400+ challenges and other benefits.
Code Combat
Code Combat helps educators to teach their students (5-17 aged) computer programming, through stories about knights and dragons, heroes, and dungeons. With a complete curriculum that includes six computer science units, kids will progress to a journey from basic syntax to more complex recursion. Code Combat focuses on the two most popular programming languages, Python and JavaScripts learning by playing successive games.
The game has a free 39 levels followed by a paid version, $9.99 per month that unlocks more advanced modules.
Stencyl
Stencyl is an intuitive toolset for kids to creating games and thereby introduce coding. It is the best software for kids ages 12+ by writing code, although it has a Drag & Drop Interface for kids aged 6 to 12, like Scratch. Today Stencyl supports iOS (iPhone/iPad), Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, Flash, and HTML5 systems, and the game developed by this platform can distribute on the iOS App Store and Google Play.
Stencyl provides a free curriculum set, that can use by teachers and parents as an effective teaching model for their children’s computer science education. Additionally, it offers free starter programming for kids, and also has some excellent paid pro plans, for those looking to improve further including the ability to publish and sell their developed games. Stencyl contained a certification program that conducts exams in partnership with AIA.
In brief, Stanly is a game-based software mainly focussed on kids of age 12 and up, furthermore, make the kids curious in conventional textual programming languages – like Java or Python.
In middle school students:
Code Avengers
Code Avengers is a New Zealand-based online education service that builds confidence in the digital world. It offers three categories of courses aims at different age groups as Foundational( 5-11 years old kids), Intermediate(for 10-15 year ages), and advanced(for 13 and up). This self-paced programming provides live support moreover, tracks kids’ achievements by analyzing their activities.
Code Avengers has a paid subscription after the free 10-day trial, and their courses include an introduction to coding, web development, and coding in Python, HTML & CSS, or JavaScript.
Code Monster
Code Monster is a fun and gentle enlightenment to programming, through linearly progressed interactive lessons and games. This features two adjacent boxes, one is for writing the code and the other one for displaying the program. Code writing is purely text-based, which familiarize JavaScript programming and, this action-and-effect-based teaching style aims at kids above 13 years.
Code Monster is free as well as no sign-ups and verifications are needed here. The FAQ in this program helps the student to search for JavaScript tutorials and textbooks elsewhere.
Codemoji
Codemoji is a unique learning platform with a deep belief that typing proficiency is not a necessity to code. It is a fun program and the best curriculum for 1 to 8th grades students (Ages: 5-13) to learn coding by allowing them to create their websites, animations, and much more. Codemoji uses emojis to teach coding, and these emojis represent blocks of codes in HTML, CSS, or Javascript.
Codemoji has a free 14-day trial followed by a paid version.
Lightbot
Lightbot is an all aged friendly puzzle game based coding application, designed for first-time coders. Kids will learn Sequencing, Overloading, Procedures, Recursive Loops, and Conditionals by solving puzzles using programming.
Lightbot also provides a free trial and hour of code for rush users, followed by a comparatively low-cost paid version, which is available for iOS, Android, and Amazon devices.
Whitehat jr
WhiteHat Jr offers online coding classes for kids in grades 1 to 12. It has several courses, specially dedicated to different proficiency levels such as beginner, intermediate, advanced, professional, and applied tech. An initial trial enrolling is free and followed by a paid version. Kids learn logic, structure, sequence, and algorithmic thinking like all the fundamentals of coding and generate their animations and apps. The classes are taught on a live online basis.
This is one of the trending platforms for kids to learn to code.
Code Karo Yaaro
Code Karo Yaroo is a personalized online coding school for kids from 6 to 15 years. They provide different programming like HTML, Java, Python for kids engagingly. They provide free demo classes, which is one to one by experienced professionals, and different packaged courses with certifications.
The main attraction of Code Karo Yaroo is, they conduct winter and Summer Coding Camps, coding quizzes, and different programs for kids from time to time. And for the winners, Code Karo Yaroo offers scholarships.
GameBlox
GameBlox is a block-based programming site for making games for anyone, mainly concentrated on 13+ students. In this completely free program, the created games are downloadable, shareable, and play on their own mobile devices. The online forum on the GameBlocks site supports learners, where questions can be posted. GameBlocks is the best choice if you have more interested in game development.
Glitch
Glitch is a friendly, creative community and a simple tool for creating web apps free of cost. Glitch is also known as Google Docs of the coding app because multiple people can work on the same project lively. Yes, Glitch encourages teamwork!
Glitch is suitable for kids aged 13 and up and, they use real-world languages and frameworks. And the community of experienced developers in Glitch can support learns with all their queries.
Pluralsight
Pluralsight is the best place to learn programming from a base to some advanced level directed at 14+ aged learners. It consists largest selections of courses such as Website development, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, C++, Java, Mobile Development, C#, Node.js, Angular, React.js, and even Machine learning, and Cybersecurity.
The courses consist of hands-on learning lessons, include videos, coding challenges, assessment tests, etc, and have an online community forum for answering questions. Pluralsight is the right place if you want to become a software developer and its trial is free followed by a subscription pack.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is an American non-profit organization that aims to develop professional skills and, it includes a variety of subjects. Recently they come with courses of codings for kids above 13 years to any age. It has expert-created content and resources for free, offers courses on JavaScript, Processing JS, HTML & CSS, HTML & JavaScript, and SQL.
Here learning the concepts talk-through, which is video but more interactive, then step-by-step challenges to practice newly learned concepts, work on a project where you can get more practice and be more creative with what you have learned.
“Meet the Professional”, is a featured attribute of Khan Academy, training the learners for interviews. Another feature is the online forum for interactions.
Code HS
Code HS is one of the top education platforms for high school students (13+), available in 10+ languages. Here courses are followed through a blended learning strategy, like video lessons, coding exercises, quizzes, and live classes by access to tutor (for the paid levels). Code HS provides a limited free trial to paid levels, depending upon the course we have taken.
The beginner starts from introductory block-coding to AP courses, and advanced and intermediate programmers can take AP Computer Science Principles or AP Computer Science in Java courses. And some other advanced modules cover programming languages like Java, JavaScript, and HTML.
Codecademy
Codecademy offers text-based modules on web development and related programming languages through step by step real-world tutorials. It contains three main divisions, Web Development, Programming & computer science, and Data Science, and related languages HTML & CSS, Ruby on Rails, Python, JavaScript, jQuery, SQL, PHP, and more.
Codecademy has an excellent forum community full of professionals, experts, and students for various supports.
Basic Codecademy courses are free. But a paid account personalized learning plan, quizzes, projects, and even get live support.
If you are looking for coding websites or applications, so many options are here. Choose the best education platform for your little one, by keenly observing the facilities and features of all, with a consideration of age and proficiency of your child in coding. The sky is the limit…!
