Hi, I have a 7 years old son and wanted to introduce him to coding. So I have started to collect information about Apps, Sites and Games that can teach kids to code or introduce them to coding mindset. Below are the ones that I’ve found. Please help me and others by commenting here or contributing in the GitHub repository and recommending the ones that you are aware of and have used.
ScratchJr
With ScratchJr, young children (ages 5-7) can program their own interactive stories and games. In the process, they learn to solve problems, design projects, and express themselves creatively on the computer.
Platforms and Price:
- Android – Free
- iPad – Free
- Amazon Fire – Free
- ChromeOS – Free
Scratch
Scratch is a programming language and an online community where children can program and share interactive media such as stories, games, and animation with people from all over the world. As children create with Scratch, they learn to think creatively, work collaboratively, and reason systematically. Scratch is primarily designed for 8 to 16 year olds.
Platforms and Price:
Algodoo
Algodoo gives you the opportunity to play with physics. Use your own hands and simple drawing tools to design, construct and explore the world of physics.
Platforms and Price:
- iPad – $4.99
- Mac – Free or $4.99 from AppStore
- Windows – Free
TypingClub
Learning how to type is quite fundamental for coding. TypingClub is the most effective way to learn how to type. It is web based, and highly effective. TypingClub is (and will always be) free for both individuals and schools.
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
BlockyGames
Blockly Games is a series of educational games that teach programming. It is designed for children who have not had prior experience with computer programming. By the end of these games, players are ready to use conventional text-based languages.
Platforms and Price:
Google Doodle – Celebrating 50 years of kids coding
With today’s Doodle — the first coding Doodle ever — we celebrate fifty years of coding languages for kids by “Coding for Carrots.” In the interactive Doodle, you program and help a furry friend across 6 levels in a quest to gather its favorite food by snapping together coding blocks based on the Scratch programming language for kids.
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
CSS Diner
CSS Diner is a simple but fun way to learn CSS. There are 32 levels that will teach you the basics of how CSS selectors work. Each level gets progressively more complex, building on what you’ve learned in previous lessons.
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
CodeMonkey
Coding Adventure is an online game that teaches programming in a real programming language called CoffeeScript. In the game, users control a monkey and help him catch bananas by writing lines of code.
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Paid with Free 14 days trial
Flexbox Froggy
Flexbox Froggy, a game where you help Froggy and friends by writing CSS code!
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
Grid Garden
Grid Garden, a game where you write CSS code to grow your carrot garden!
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
Flexbox Defence
Your job is to stop the incoming enemies from getting past your defenses. Unlike other tower defense games, you must position your towers using CSS!
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
Code Combat
CodeCombat is aimed at teachers and students, but anyone can play. Courses are available in JavaScript and Python. Web Development courses utilize HTML, CSS, and jQuery.
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
Ruby Warrior
“A triumphant quest of adventure, love & destiny all within a few lines of code”. This game teaches Ruby. You do need to login with your Facebook account to save the progress.
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
Untrusted
Untrusted is a meta-JavaScript adventure game. The game presents you with a roguelike-like playing environment and a console window with the JavaScript code generating each level. As loaded, each level is unbeatable, and most of the JavaScript is blocked from editing. The challenge is to open a path to the next level using only the limited tools left open to you. It is definitely not for beginners
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
Code Hunt
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
Robocode
Robocode is a programming game, where the goal is to develop a robot battle tank to battle against other tanks in Java or .NET. The robot battles are running in real-time and on-screen.
Platforms and Price:
- Offline Java or .Net – Free
CheckIO
Build your base and defeat your enemies through a variety of coding activities starting from the basic level upward to advanced. You can do the activities in either Python or JavaScript. Not for small kids as it requires some basic coding knowledge and reading mission statements.
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
VIM Adventures
VIM as a de-facto editor on most linux system and it has a lot of usefull commands. VIM Adventures teaches you how to use these.
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free (first three levels)or $25 for the full game.
Cyber Dojo
Cyber Dojo has many practise exercises for more than 15 languages including C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby and more. It is for practising your skills (which you should already have:-)) and not learning form scratch.
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
Elevator Saga
This is a game of programming! Your task is to program the movement of elevators, by writing a program in JavaScript.
The goal is to transport people in an efficient manner. Depending on how well you do it, you can progress through the ever more difficult challenges. Only the very best programs will be able to complete all the challenges.
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
Ligthbot : Code Hour
Lightbot is a programming puzzle game. The game focuses on helping the robot light up all the blue tiles on a 3D grid. This is the Free version created for the Code Hour.
Platforms and Price:
[Lightbot Jr : Coding Puzzles]
More coding puzzles from the creators of “Ligthbot : Code Hour”. This version is for 4-8 years old kids. Platforms and Price:
[Lightbot : Programming Puzzles]
More coding puzzles from the creators of “Ligthbot : Code Hour”. This version is for 9+ years old kids. Platforms and Price:
SpriteBox : Code Hour
From the creators of Lightbot, SpriteBox is a unique puzzle-platformer; a mix of exploration and learning to code. By giving Sprite programs of instructions to follow, you can advance through unique worlds and help free Sprite’s bottled-up friends. During your adventure, you’ll learn to sequence commands, change parameters, debug faulty logic, and use simple to complex loops to solve problems. Once comfortable with Icon-based coding, you can choose to play SpriteBox using real Java syntax.
This is the Free version created for the Code Hour.
Platforms and Price:
SpriteBox Coding
From the creators of Lightbot, SpriteBox Coding is a full-blown adventure game that gets you coding. Start from scratch by solving coding puzzles using icons. Over time, icons will give way to textual commands. In no time, you’ll be solving puzzles in a real programming language!
Platforms and Price:
CodinGame
This one is not for small kids, but for ones that already have some coding skills. CodinGame offers up games to learn more than 25 programming languages, including JavaScript, Ruby, and PHP. One of the great things about CodinGame is that you can play with friends or colleagues, and also enter international coding competitions.
Platforms and Price:
- Online – Free
Photo by LuidmilaKot from Pixels.com