We're Becoming Computer Programmers

Now that everyone is home all the time we have a lot of time on our hands. So I have decided to use some of this time to teach my kids how to do some basic computer programming.

"But wait," you say, "I didn't know you could code?"

Well, I don't! But no better time than a global pandemic to learn a new skill, right?

The good thing about learning to code/program in 2020 is that there are a lot of very easy, entry-level options that treat programming as, essentially, a logic puzzle. The most popular of these is Scratch (which I am using with Andres and Celia). The makers of Scratch, recognizing their success, also made Scratch Jr for the younger set, and I am using that with Lucia.

Both environments allow users/programmers to snap together little "blocks" that contain commands. Those commands then dictate the behavior of a "sprite," or character, on the screen. So whereas coding an actual webpage may have a lot of < > and /, Scratch and Scratch Jr is much more visual--which is perfect for helping kids (and adults who have never coded) make sense of what it actually means to program. (Of course this is purely my interpretation, as I have never really coded.)

We started this experiment last Thursday. I took a couple hours off of work and we had a dedicated "programming time" in the family room. I was expecting some complaints--but amazingly, everybody seemed happy.

First I worked with Lucia on some basic number line exercises that helped her understand what the whole "block" concept was about. (Basically, given blocks of +5, -5, +3, and -3, could she make certain numbers on the number line?) She grasped this concept pretty quickly, and after about 25 minutes of programming-but-really-math, she wanted to use Scratch Jr to actually create something. So I let her do that while I began working with the other two.

Celia and Andres had both done some limited programming before, so they were both familiar with the look and feel of Scratch. But we watched a couple intro videos to dive back in, and then I encouraged them to play around with some of the controls and blocks. Celia spent most of her time designing a character; Andres was able to make a pretty basic animation of a boy shooting a basketball into a hoop. They both stayed focused for the duration, though, and by the time 4pm rolled around, everyone had designed something they were proud of.

The weekend came and went and I think everybody dove into their projects at some point. Lucia actually did the most--and came up with a couple animations she was proud of. (I can't share them here because I can't figure out how to export a Scratch Jr file...but basically, she was able to make a few different scenes where characters talked to each other, and then moved around the screen a bit. They were fun.)

We had another session today. Everybody worked hard, again, and the projects became a bit more sophisticated. Lucia created an animation where three different sprites talked to each other. Celia created an animation where a soccer player dribbles a ball--and then scores a goal. And Andres made it halfway towards programming a simple dodgeball game. Progress!

I hope I can maintain the energy (and the time) to continue this over the next few weeks. Though staying at home is beginning to wear thin already, I do want to take advantage of this time that we all have together to try to teach them something different or fun or interesting. Maybe that way, in 10 years when they are all looking back on this weird spring, they will think, "Yeah, the pandemic was awful. But remember all that coding we did? That was pretty fun."