Hi. I wanted to teach my niece the lessons from code.org. She is 10 years old and she loves video games. Before teaching her, I’m taking the course for teachers on code.org to build a clear teaching path. However, i felt lost when i was taking the course. There are Courses 1, 2, 3, and 4 and also the game like Minecraft.
- If i want to teach my niece, should i teach from Courses 1, 2, 3, and 4 which seem too easy for a 10-year-old kid. Butt hose easy courses help her understand the basic concepts of coding.
- Should I start teaching her the content according to the progress of the teaching course I’m taking right now. Or should I finish the teaching course first?
Lin,
First off, you’re doing a great thing by getting involved and preparing your niece for the future! I would have her go through the basic courses just to get the basics concepts down (just like you said) and then you can experiment in any of the code studio playground courses, or also sign up for Scratch and she can see others games and recreate ones herself. The key right now is exposure to this “computational thinking” so that she is better prepared down the road. There is no one correct path, whenever you feel comfortable discussing lessons is a great time to start.
Also keep in mind that a lot of these courses the teachers in a classroom of 20+ are learning for the first time as well, so the courses are self directed and your niece is lucky to have someone that wants to engage one on one with her to discuss what she learned and apply it!
Let me know if you have any other questions, there are plenty of resources to help out in you and your nieces coding journey!
Brad
Hi Brad,
Thank you so much for your suggestions. I think the basic courses can help her improve her English. So i might create two different types of objectives each lesson. One is from the provided lesson plan of code.org. The other is the english terms that will appear in the lesson. Do you think it would be too much for her?
I think most of words repeatedly show up at each stage, which reinforces her memory of learning the english words at the same time. We are living in China by the way. 
Glad to meet you!
Lin
Lin,
Sounds great! This will also give her time to make sense of the concepts while she’s learning the new language! Scratch also has some language translation, but it sounds like you want her to improve her english skills so it sounds like you have a good plan!
Brad
I also invite you to try Course D. If you feel that Courses 1-4 are too simple, Course D should be a good introduction all by itself, then you can move her on to some more creative and open spaces, like Tynker and Scratch!