Beside foreign languages, a programming language nowadays becomes a must for parents to teach to their children. Programming language, which is also called coding, has been taught through offline and online training. Dozens of institutions and websites promote coding training, especially for kids. One of the famous sites for coding for kids is codemonkey.com. As there have been already hundreds of parents signing up their children to the site, this is an honest review of Codemonkey.com
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Introduction: CodeMonkey profile
For more than eight years, Codemonkey.com has developed several programs and elaborated with several major organizations. Jonathan Schor as the CEO and co-founder along with other founders have been coding since the 1990s and has been teaching children how to code until now. Code and digital literacy are the main focus of the platform. It also provides a curriculum for schools, camps, and clubs to teach coding, particularly for young learners.
As self-paced online learning of coding for kids, there are 8 courses with different objectives and levels. Each course includes coding concepts that also meet the curriculum standards: Common Core State Standard, CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standard, and National Curriculum in England.
Pros
Based on the user experience, here are several advantages of CodeMonkey that might benefit children and parents.
- Varied levels
Basically, the courses are broken down based on children’s grades which are K-2, grade 2-5, grade 6-8, and a little bit of advanced coding for kids like a game builder. Each course has several types including CodeMonkey Jr and Beaver Achiever for K-2 . The course types have varied challenges ranging from 30 to more than 210.
- Simple without downloading anything
What parents need to do is just provide the devices and open the CodeMonkey site. The programming languages that are used are block-based coding or scratch, CoffeeScript, and Phyton. Though the language programming used is Phyton, parents do not need to install the program. Later as children finish their program in CodeMonkey and start using the Phyton app by themselves, they will already get familiar with the programming language.
- Engaging activities and graphics
Logic and coding are taught implicitly in game-based activities. Hence children will not realize that they are coding not playing games. It helps to build the basic principle of coding for kids as well as to avoid boredom and burden in learning.
- Available in many languages
Although the signing-up site only has two languages: English and Spanish, the learning site provides more than twenty languages including Hebrew, Korean, Japanese, Bahasa Malaysia, Filipino, Mandarin, Arabic, Norsk, Svenska, Türkçe, and more. Don’t worry if your children are not advanced in English.
- Free trial without credit card
This is the most beneficial feature for parents. Before directly heading to a monthly or yearly plan, it is best for your children to try several coding for kids courses before and decide whether they enjoy and are suitable for the courses. If they love and grasp the coding principles enthusiastically, you can go subscribe to the plans. If they don’t, you wouldn’t waste your money.
- Routine updates
This site is open to feedback and criticism. You can directly contact them, or you can share your thought on their surveys. The lovely part is that they really listen to your suggestion by creating some new features and updates routinely. The current updates are quizzes and coloring pages; they help the process of coding for kids more challenging.
- Teachable even for non-coders
Not only does self-paced learning for kids, but the site also provides lesson plans and curricula for teachers, institutions, and even parents who homeschool their children. The lesson plans are regularly updated and use clear and simple instructional language so even people who never code before could understand.
- Open for sharing and networking
At certain levels, children could create their own games and share them with the CodeMonkey community. They can also try each other games. It also collaborates with Hour of Code that is an international movement to teach coding for kids. During the event, hundreds of students learn coding together.
Cons
- Technical support needed
When technical problems occur like bugs and errors on the site, parents need to solve this themselves. During the learning process of coding for kids, they may also need to set up some features on their devices and surely this needs help for technical support.
- Fewer free-form activities
It is good for children who are learning how to code. For children who have advanced knowledge of coding, the controlled activities may be boring for them.
- Not compatible with some new model devices
On online reviews, some parents complain that the site runs very slow and even not at all on their devices.
- Non-refundable
Once you subscribe, you get unlimited access to the offered features. Yet, you can’t cancel until the period is over.
- Slow progress for the challenges
Some challenges are presented in each course, but the progress of the challenge is quite slow. Students might want to skip or even surpass the material that is being taught.
Conclusion
After considering the profile, pros, and cons of Codemonkey.com, well is it worth trying? The answer will depend on you and your kids. In our opinion the site is definitely worth trying.
Start using the free trial first, find suitable courses and challenges, and finally, you can choose any plans that suit your children the most. With all the features and access offered like parent access, webinars, videos, documentation, graphics, and more, CodeMonkey is worth it.
Another similar service you might be interested in is Minicoders.
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