For most parents, the arrival of a child is a vow to work towards the well being of their bundle of joy. As the child grows, their expectations and aspirations from the child increases gradually. What remains constant, is their wish to mould their child into a good human being, imbibing the basic humanitarian qualities and moral virtues.
The words of Dr. Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist & author, seems quite applicable in the way our youngest generation is sprouting up. Raised in the lap of technology, Gen Z is all wired up in technology 24/7. The American Academy of Paediatrics reports that on an average, kids spend up to 7 hours a day on some or other random electronic device. The question is what do they filter and what goes into their brains?
“The way one plays chess always reflects the player’s personality. If something defines his character, then it will also define his way of playing”. The words of Vladimir Kramnik, the Russian chess grandmaster, eloquently sum up the impact of cognitive training. A strategic game like chess not only mirrors the child’s personality but the 'moves' give a peek into the child’s innate character.
Learning to code for kids is becoming increasingly common these days and one cannot dismiss the fact that it is a fast paced technological world and one needs to make complete use of it, be it to use them for convenience or use it to help kids learn the various skills much needed these days.
A relatively new topic for kids to learn, coding, as many people think, is no rocket science. As against the popular knowledge, young kids have an added advantage. Statistics show that kids learn coding faster, as compared to an adult. One can also view it as another language learnt another type of literacy.
To cope up with today’s stressful and highly competitive world, people are planning to prepare their children from the early stages of life. A lot of parents have enrolled their children in yoga classes and several other programs to enhance the physical capability of kids, but there is one mistake that most of them are making. Physical fitness is essential, and it can be attained with the help of a gym, but what about the mental fitness? Isn’t it equally important? The word “fitness” is not limited to just physical health. Both emotional and physical fitness are required in equal proportion to become truly successful in life. Just like a typical gym takes care of the physical fitness of a person, the brain gym takes care of the mental fitness.
Let’s accept this – coding is tough and involves complex concepts. Coding is something we as adults sometimes find daunting, tending to give up learning once in a while. Now imagine what kids would have to go through when they have to sit in front of their computers, tackling something that is way beyond their age, comprehension levels, attention span and mindsets.
However, tons of kids out there enjoy coding. This is mainly because the way they are introduced by their parents, teachers or afterschool programs instructors. Though coding for kids revolves around a fairly similar approach – logics, tools, programming languages, basic algorithms, functions and more – what actually kids learn and the fun they have learning depends on how they perceive coding. And that entirely depends on us. So, if you intend to introduce coding to your kids and sustain their interests for long, here’s how you can do it.
Extra-curricular activities – We have been told since time immemorial that it is essential to participate in activities that are separate from our day to day actions.
Let’s take a second to figure out exactly why this is so important. Besides the overused terms such as personality development and forming of a well-rounded individual, we tend to ignore the main purpose of these activities that is to build and improve cognitive function. It is scientifically proven that beginning to work on these skills at an early age helps not only academically but also allows the mind to think differently and perform tasks with more efficiency.
While we sleep, there are people in the nooks and corners of the world desperately carving their way towards excellence. Full of inspiring stories, visions and breakthroughs, they have this knack of looking at things from wider and newer perspectives. It may seem a bit of a cliché but these people have always asked why not instead of why and the result is the place they stand today in their lives.
At Mind Mentorz, we personally consider this post close to our heart mainly because of two things. Firstly, it brings to the light the inevitability of coding, its pros and influence on kids’ imagination and true inner potential. Secondly, and most importantly, it aims at bringing back the long-lost habit among the kids of today of picking up a book and reading it.
It's summer and as parents, most of us are looking for effective and exciting ways to engage our kids. If you have not enrolled your kids to a Summer Camp program, you can still pave way for a productive summer. Though televisions, video games and tablets are fine, kids need constant nurturing in terms of developing new abilities, creativity, logical reasoning and more. That is why we have the most ideal solution that will not just keep the kids engaged but let them have fun while doing it as well.
On one of our previous posts, we shared some insights on why your kids should start learning coding today. To take that vision of ours forward, we bring to you some of the most essential websites that you need to bookmark to teach coding to your kids. Apart from making your kids future-ready in terms of life and career security, early exposure to coding and app development unleashes the full potential of your kids’ creativity and imagination.
As we are slowly waking up to the importance of coding and programming languages here in India, a group back in the US realized the inevitability of coding as early as 16 years back. And this realization was not based on the scope of coding for adults but for kids over 8 years. Yes, MIT Lab’s Lifelong Kindergarden Group developed a visual programming language targeted at teaching coding to kids in 2002 that made its first appearance in the year 2007. Designed to help kids understand coding concepts and programming languages, the visual tool for ages 8 and above allows kids to think, analyze, collaborate and imagine a virtual world simultaneously learning digital concepts.
One of the major shortcomings our previous generation complained was on the inaccessibility to information. For them, everything was a struggle and they had to go on a pursuit to know things, adapt, work and evolve. However, that’s not the case with our generation and the ones to follow. At the click of a button, we have a world of information waiting to be explored and if you’re really into personal development for yourself or your kid, there are plenty of avenues and opportunities.
At a time when the world is talking about why adults and conventional IT professionals should learn to code and upskill to data analytics and Python programming languages, we would like to take a space off the sphere and emphasize why your kids should start learning coding today. In simple words, technology-based skills that were considered in-demand yesterday have become obsolete today. The massive layoffs last year in tech companies like Tech Mahindra, Infosys, CTS and more are prime examples of this.
Coding that's child's play. Inveno is a complete learning experience for kids to learn how to code, through its unique, child-friendly, coding platform and a certified network of highly educated, home teachers. Trobo is a programmable robot. When you write code and run it on Trobo, you can watch it draw, move, flash lights, play sounds and more. A fun and engaging way to learn coding! Our curriculum and content fully integrates with Trobo.
Located at Kalyan Nagar, Bangalore, Mind Mentorz is an academy run by passionate mentors that help children succeed in Chess, Coding, Rubik's, and Robotics. The mentors come with over 5 + years of teaching experience with children of all ages and have immense knowledge in the subjects that they deal with.
