Marin Maker Kids: Spend Winter Break with an Hour of Code

If your kids are looking for something fun and rewarding to do over Winter Break, why not make that screen time fun and educational by completing an Hour of Code? Hour of Code officially took place during Computer Science Education Week earlier this month, but if you missed it or just want to have more fun learning some code there are some great online resources out there for you to explore.

Code.org offers a number of online Hour of Code activities for beginners that work in modern web browsers or tablets. Choose from activities with Minecraft, Star Wars, Frozen themes, make your own Flappy Bird game, or code a story with Disney characters. In the Minecraft Hour of Code, for example, you'll arrange blocks of code to move the Steve or Alice characters through a Minecraft world and have them interact with blocks and MOBs. The underlying programming language for all of these activities is JavaScript, but they use a simple visual interface where you drag blocks of code into a workspace in order to make the characters successfully navigate through the various puzzles and challenges.

It may seem like fun and games, but by working through these puzzles you're actually learning about basic programming logic like statements and repeat loops. Most of the activities are designed for ages 6 and up, although a couple are a little more challenging and are best suited for kids 8 and over. Grownups may even have fun with these (and learn something), too!) None of these require you to install anything on your computer or tablet—they're all browser-based, and of course they're free to use! If you get stuck, don't worry: there are plenty of helpful videos and hints to assist you in your coding journey. When you finish your Hour of Code activity, you can print out a personalized certificate of achievement.

If you get through all of these activities there are even more available through the Code.org including offerings by Google, Khan Academy, and Tynker, and there are resources for all ages and skill levels. For older kids (think middle school and up), we really like CodeCombat, an open-source project that looks like a cool online fantasy adventure game, but is actually a fun learning environment where you learn JavaScript or Python. Try out their Hour of Code offering, and then create an account and work through the other levels. Like the Code.org offerings it's free to play, too.

Tackle these activities this Winter Break and you can be on your way toward learning to code! Check out code.org/learn to access all the Hour of Code activities.