CodeWizardsHQ (Coding Class Review)

My Youngest is somewhat attached to things electronic and likes to spend as much time as possible at the keyboard. As a result, he thinks he may be interested in learning how to code, so he was excited to be given the opportunity to try out a CodeWizardsHQ demo live class with other Review Crew Kids this past week (the class was the first class of the first course).

The basic offerings are 12-week courses, culminating with the opportunity to intern for 6 months with a non-profit partner organization after completing all 4 courses. While not specifically a homeschooling course, CodeWizardsHQ offers special pricing for homeschool groups (or families with more than three children taking the class at the same time).

One of the things that sets this course apart from many other homeschool computer science curriculum I've seen is that it is taught live, by an instructor, real-time via GoToMeeting, not self-paced or via video instructor. Here's a short video that will introduce you to CodeWizardsHQ and explain a little bit about the program.


So how did the class work for us?
Well, it was a little bumpy to begin with, as we were trying to figure out how to go between the "class page" with the instructor in GoToMeeting and the "program page" on the website where youngest was doing his work. Because of our confusion, he got a little behind with the step-by-step directions, but the instructor was very patient with all of the kids in the class (just like in a physical classroom, students needed help at different times). I will mention here that he is also at the earlier end of the age spectrum recommended for this class, as a 5th grader/rising 6th grader, so that played a part in grasping how the process worked, and I'm sure that if we continued to a second class it would have run more smoothly as the bouncing between screens was already ironed out.

The people at CodeWizardsHQ are very prompt in answering questions via email, sometimes even reaching out before anything comes up to make sure that everything is working alright. In the regular class course, the student can get feedback from the instructor during the next class, and the classes are also recorded, so if someone does get a little lost, they would have the opportunity to rewatch the class and find what they missed the first time through.

Here are a few pictures I took as Youngest was getting started in the class:

There is a chat box on the right, with microphone settings (mute when working on the project, and the ability to turn on when the student has a question). This screen is one of the instructor's slides.

Here you can see that my son has a window open on the left which is the webpage where he was doing the work, and a window on the top on the right which is where the instruction was taking place...

In this picture, the page my son was working on was smaller and overlaying the GoToMeeting page with the instructor, which was much larger. 

After the class ended my son was very pleased that he could still work on his comic strip, and decided to redo the entire thing, working for another 45 minutes or so. Here is a picture of his finished little comic strip. He chose the backgrounds, the characters, and added his own words to the text bubbles, all in basic html coding, which you can see to the right... 

All in all he seemed to enjoy the class, and picked up a few things, which is all I can ask from a one-hour class. I do think that it could be helpful to have a bit of a printed manual (pdf download) that covers what will be happening in each class so that the younger kids could have their parents helping out when there is some confusion. It would also be a little more like a traditional classroom with a "textbook" that could be referred back to, particularly for those who might not be as adept at catching things... or for the purposes of reviewing things down the road a bit.

The certification aspect is a very nice bonus, and something worth considering if your child is interested in going down the digital path to their future as it is not a little bit of code here, and a little bit of code there, but a complete course that will be helpful to prepare children for college and career success in the digital world.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: CodeWizardsHQ
• Product: 12 Week Coding Classes for Kids
• Ages: 5th-10th grade
• Price: $149/month base fee (x 3, as there are 4 classes/month to complete the course)

As might be expected of a digital-based company, CodeWizardsHQ has a definite social media presence:
In addition to regular pages on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube, there is a specific Facebook page for parents interested in their child learning to code. It includes sharing of resources, ideas, tips and support for teaching programming to kids.

Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

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