Frequently Asked Questions
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While online tutorials and apps can introduce coding concepts, structured classes with live instruction offer significant advantages:
Personalized guidance: Instructors identify exactly where a child is stuck and provide targeted help. Self-paced tutorials can’t answer questions or adapt to individual learning styles.
Accountability and consistency: Regular classes create routine and momentum. Kids working alone often lose motivation when projects become challenging.
Social learning: Classmates provide inspiration, collaboration opportunities, and the understanding that everyone struggles sometimes. This social context is particularly important for girls, who research shows are more likely to persist in STEM when learning in supportive peer groups.
Structured progression: Quality programs scaffold learning carefully, ensuring kids master fundamentals before advancing. Self-directed learning often leads to gaps in understanding.
Reduced screen time concerns: Instructor-led classes balance screen time with discussion, problem-solving, and collaborative activities, making it educational rather than passive consumption.
That said, online resources complement classes beautifully—they’re perfect for practice between sessions or exploring specific interests.
Coding has become as fundamental as reading and writing in the 21st century. Here’s why it matters:
Technology shapes our world: From the apps kids use daily to the algorithms determining what they see online, code powers modern life. Understanding coding helps children navigate and question their digital environment rather than being passive consumers.
Equity and opportunity: The National Center for Women & Information Technology reports that women hold only 26% of computing jobs, and underrepresented minorities are significantly underrepresented in tech careers. Early coding education—especially programs focused on girls and lower-income families—helps close these opportunity gaps.
Computational thinking across disciplines: Coding teaches problem-solving approaches used in medicine, environmental science, business, art, and virtually every field. Doctors use algorithms for diagnosis, architects use code for design, and journalists use programming for data analysis.
Confidence with technology: Children who learn coding see themselves as creators and problem-solvers in the digital world. This confidence shapes their academic choices and career possibilities, especially for girls who might otherwise feel excluded from technology fields.
Future-ready skills: As artificial intelligence and automation transform the job market, the ability to work alongside technology, understand its capabilities, and create technological solutions becomes increasingly valuable—regardless of career path.
Children learn coding best through hands-on, project-based experiences in supportive, small-group environments. Here’s what makes coding education effective:
Project-based learning: Instead of memorizing isolated concepts, kids learn by building things they care about—games, animations, interactive stories, or websites. This approach, validated by research from Harvard’s Project Zero, helps knowledge stick because children apply concepts immediately.
Iteration and debugging: Learning to code means learning that mistakes are valuable. When kids debug their programs—finding and fixing errors—they develop persistence, critical thinking, and systematic problem-solving. This growth mindset is one of coding’s most valuable lessons.
Small class sizes: Research consistently shows that student-to-teacher ratios of 6:1 or smaller dramatically improve learning outcomes, especially for girls and students from underrepresented groups in STEM. Personalized attention helps children ask questions freely and progress at their own pace.
Peer collaboration: Working alongside other children provides opportunities to share ideas, learn different approaches to problems, and build communication skills. Coding becomes a social activity rather than isolated screen time.
Scaffolded challenges: Effective coding instruction starts simple and gradually increases complexity, ensuring children feel successful while being appropriately challenged.
No—your child does not need advanced math skills to start coding. While coding and math share problem-solving approaches, coding can actually improve math skills rather than requiring them as a prerequisite.
Basic arithmetic is enough to start: Most beginner coding projects use simple counting, addition, and subtraction. As the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics notes, coding provides a practical context for applying math concepts, which helps children understand why math matters.
Coding teaches mathematical thinking differently: Programming introduces concepts like variables, coordinates, and angles through visual, interactive projects. Many children who struggle with traditional math instruction find that coding makes these ideas click because they see immediate, tangible results.
Logic matters more than calculation: Coding emphasizes logical thinking, sequencing, and pattern recognition—skills that are related to but distinct from computational math. Children strong in creative thinking, storytelling, or spatial reasoning often excel at coding even if they find math worksheets challenging.
They grow together: As children advance in coding, they naturally encounter and learn mathematical concepts like geometry (game coordinates), algebra (variables and functions), and even statistics (data analysis projects). Studies show this contextual learning often improves math performance.
Block-based coding removes the barriers that frustrate young learners—syntax errors, typing mistakes, and memorizing commands—while teaching the same logical thinking used by professional programmers. Here’s why it works:
Eliminates syntax frustration: Children can focus on what they want their program to do rather than how to type it correctly. A single missing semicolon won’t derail their entire project, which keeps kids confident and engaged.
Makes logic visible: Color-coded blocks that physically snap together help children see how programs are structured. They learn that certain blocks (like loops) contain other blocks, teaching the concept of nested logic that appears in every programming language.
Builds computational thinking: According to research from Google’s Computer Science Education team, block-based coding teaches decomposition (breaking problems into parts), pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithm design—the core skills that define computational thinking.
Creates an easy transition: When kids are ready, most block-based platforms show the equivalent text code (JavaScript, Python) for each block. Students often feel excited to see that they’ve been “writing real code” all along, making the transition to text-based programming feel natural rather than intimidating.
The best coding platform depends on your child’s age and experience level, but these consistently rank as top choices:
Scratch (ages 8-16) – Created by MIT Media Lab, Scratch is the gold standard for introducing kids to coding. It uses colorful blocks that snap together to teach sequencing, loops, conditionals, variables, and event handling. Kids learn fundamental programming logic that applies to languages like Python, JavaScript, and Java. Over 100 million kids worldwide have used Scratch to create interactive stories, games, and animations. Learn more at scratch.mit.edu
For younger learners (ages 5-7), ScratchJr simplifies Scratch concepts for pre-readers on tablets.
Code.org (ages 4+) – Offers free, self-paced courses from pre-readers through high school. Their Hour of Code activities and structured curriculum teach block-based coding that transitions to JavaScript and Python as students advance. Code.org reports that students who complete their courses show increased problem-solving abilities across subjects.
Blockly (ages 8+) – Google’s visual programming language teaches JavaScript, Python, PHP, Lua, and Dart through blocks. It’s particularly effective because students can toggle between block view and the actual code, helping them understand how block-based coding translates to real programming languages.
Tynker (ages 5-17) – Combines visual coding with game design and robotics integration, teaching progression from blocks to Swift, JavaScript, and Python.
A 7-year-old should start coding with block-based programming platforms that make coding visual and intuitive. At this age, children learn best through:
Interactive, game-like platforms such as Scratch (developed by MIT), Code.org, or Blockly that let kids drag and drop code blocks to create animations, games, and stories. These platforms teach fundamental programming concepts—sequences, loops, conditionals, and events—without requiring typing skills or syntax memorization.
Small-group or one-on-one instruction where they receive personalized guidance and can ask questions. Research published by the Computer Science Teachers Association demonstrates that small classroom sizes significantly improve comprehension and confidence, especially for girls and underrepresented groups in technology.
Project-based learning that connects coding to their interests. Whether they want to create a game about their favorite animal or animate a story about superheroes, starting with projects they care about keeps 7-year-olds engaged and motivated.
Children can start learning coding concepts as early as 5-6 years old through visual, block-based programming. However, ages 7-10 represent an ideal window when kids have developed the logical thinking skills needed for coding while still being naturally curious and fearless about technology. At this age, children can grasp sequencing, patterns, and cause-and-effect relationships that form the foundation of programming.
Research from MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten Group shows that early exposure to computational thinking helps children develop problem-solving skills that benefit them across all subjects. The key is matching the learning approach to your child’s developmental stage—younger children thrive with game-based, visual coding, while older kids (10+) can transition to text-based programming languages.
We place beginners with an orientation educator who assesses their current skill level, prepares them to join class, and helps us to place them thoughtfully in the classroom where they’ll be best served.Plus, your child will always be focused on their own project in class because we use non-sequential learning to help them tackle challenges as they arise – keeping them passionate about exploring their own ideas at every turn.
We place beginners with an orientation educator who assesses their current skill level, prepares them to join class, and helps us to place them thoughtfully in the classroom where they’ll be best served.Plus, your child will always be focused on their own project in class because we use non-sequential learning to help them tackle challenges as they arise – keeping them passionate about exploring their own ideas at every turn.
Our mission uplifts the ideal of “Coding for All!” We’ve had a longstanding policy to “find a way’ to support all students regardless of financial means and we work tirelessly to put people over profits.
If class is cost prohibitive and you truly have a need, we’ve formed partnerships with PTA’s, non-profits, and corporate sponsors to increase our ability to serve more kids. E-mail us at parentsupport@codingNP.org and we’ll reach out to discuss what options are available to you.
Send an email with your child’s name and school and we’ll get them on the student waitlist. We’ll send you an invite to register when class opens.
The best way for us to bring a coding program to a new school is at the request of the parents. If you think your kids’ school is a great fit, get in touch with us or request that your school or PTA get in touch! We’ll do the rest. Email us at parentsupport@codingnp.org. For more information, visit our page for schools.
All of our students need their own account on Scratch, the software we use to make games. If you need to set up a new account, head to https://scratch.mit.edu and click on “Join Scratch.”
If you cancel you’re registration over 2 weeks before the first day of class, we will refund your payment, minus a $50 cancellation fee. Cancellations less than 2 weeks before the start of the class will also be charged a $50 cancellation fee, and we will process your registration refunded if we can fill the spot from our wait list.
Our schedule and class focus is customized to your child. Even though we consider sessions to be 8 classes long, they can take those 8 classes as they’re able to. If they miss one, we’ll make sure they get scheduled for another one.