Cloud Dough

National Coding Week begins Sept. 14, so it’s a great time to teach your kids a little bit about coding. Of course there are all sorts of online resources to learn how to code, but it’s also fun, especially when kids are first starting to learn the concepts of coding, to work without a computer.

Concepts like pattern recognition and following step by step directions are essential in understanding the logic behind coding, and those things are easy to teach without a screen.

Carly and Adam has a good post about the first activities to introduce coding without a screen, including directional coding, retelling a story in sequence, and coding their own stories.

Little Bins for Little Hands has lots of great resources on coding for kids, including printable secret code worksheets that have kids follow instructions to make a drawing on a grid, and a collection of printable coding worksheets and other activities. Coding your name in binary is a classic.

Teach Your Kids Code is another great place to learn about coding for different ages of kids. A couple of fun examples are coding with a deck of cards and with magnet tiles. (Check out more activities using magnetic tiles.)

Speaking of common household items you can use to teach coding, another great option is to use Legos or other blocks to build mazes that help teach the basics of coding.

Team Cartwright has a great post on coding with Legos starting with the most basic skills (sorting into components and repeating patterns) and building on those basic skills to follow a code or write your own code.

Research Parent has a great activity for building a Lego maze with code, which includes printable base mazes to build as well as blank mazes so they can build their own. There are also printable coding phrases so you or your kids can write a code for going through the maze and see if it works. Older kids could write the code and then try to build a maze from those instructions.