Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Code for Teens {Homeschool Crew Review}

In this day and age, it is important, almost vital, for our children to have computer skills, including coding, or programming. Code for Teens provides a useful book, called Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming, Volume 1. SJ has been working through it the past few weeks.
Code for Teens is a softcover textbook, written directly to the student and focuses on JavaScript. I find it engaging, and easy to read. Author Jeremy Moritz is a homeschool dad himself, so he knows how to write effectively to the student and sprinkles the information with humor. So if you are like I am, and really don't know anything about computer programming, you can still provide them with this resource so they can learn on their own. (But you may also want to use it yourself, and teacher yourself coding!)
This book contains ten chapters, plus an introduction, a special message to parents at the beginning, with a conclusion, answers, and glossary of terms at the end.

The chapters:
1. Hello World!
2. Time to Operate
3. Comment on the String Section
4. Have Some Functions
5. Shall I Compare
6. Logically Operational
7. Projects Galore
8. Hip Hip Array!
9. Loop a Round
10. Make a Hangman Game

Your student will need a computer, either a desktop or a laptop, or a Chromebook. He will need to use the Google Chrome browser.

Your student will actually be writing lines of code in the very first chapter! As your teen reads, there will be lines of code, highlighted in gray, that he will need to type into the screen. He is also shown what the response will be to the code just entered.
One thing that is great about this book is your student can move through it at his/her pace. SJ is moving slowly through it, and I hope he is comprehending what he's learning as he goes. But at least he can read it over and over again, if he needs to, in order to understand the concepts and steps, etc.
Each chapter provides information and lines of code to type in, a quiz, key concepts section, drills, and an aggregate review. I like that there is such a strong hands-on approach, since that is the best method with which SJ learns.
If SJ gets really stuck, at least he can go to the back of the book, to look over the answers, and find the solution to his problem, since I already know I won't be much help to him, myself. There is also a Code for Teens forum, through which he may get help.


I was telling my middle son about this book, and he said it sounded intriguing; so, we may be sharing it with him, as well, when SJ is finished with it. We will look forward to more volumes, more computer languages, from Code for Teens. I hope you'll check it out, too.

Connect with Code for Teens via social media:
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Several other families on the Crew have also been using Code for Teens; just click the banner below to go read their reviews.
Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming {Code for Teens Reviews}

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