Code for Teens - Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming Volume 1 Review

Computer coding is a rising industry, but most of us did not learn today's programming skills.  So how do we teach them?  We recently had the opportunity to review Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming Volume 1 from Code for Teens.  What a great resource for any student learning programming skills!


Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming Volume 1 takes your teen into the unfamiliar world of JavaScript and introduces them to this valuable computer language.  JavaScript is one of the most used computer languages, in fact 90% of all websites use it.  So it's definitely a top language to learn.
Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming Volume 1 takes the guesswork out of teaching for parents.  It has been designed for your student to use on their own.  I think this is a great concept, since I know that I do not know JavaScript, just enough to get by.  Plus it helps give me a project to assign out to Lydia that allows her to work on her independent study skills, something just as important as learning computer programming.  My only responsibility is to make sure that she stays on track with her assignments. 
Speaking of assignments though, this ten chapter book continually builds on previous skills.  There are several drills in each chapter that allow your student to review and reinforce what they are learning.  Each chapter features bold-faced vocabulary terms to help your student learn their new terminology.  Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming Volume 1 sets itself apart from other computer programming curriculums by NOT being full of cartoon characters that most teens really do not care about anymore.  This is helpful for those high school students who may have grown past Disney.  

Chapter one introduces them to using Chrome as their browser for using with this book.  Since Lydia and I have MAC, the instructions are also clearly presented if you are using a MAC.  BONUS!!  No extra research for either of us.

Lydia has been using Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming Volume 1 during the review period.  A few things I really like about her using this program:
1.  With her visual perception delay, sometimes using textbooks versus online programs can make her struggle, but with Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming Volume 1 she was able to follow along easily.  Bold faced text are vocabulary terms, material for her to be typing into her page, highlighted in gray.  Very easy for her eyes to follow along.  Even the chapters are color coded along the page edges.  So she can follow along with the pages that she is working on the orange pages that week, or purple, etc, and not get lost.
2.  The review at the end of each chapter allows her to reinforce what she is working on.  She can refer back to key concepts, and there are also Drills for her to work on.  The Drills not only provide review and extra practice, but also keep reinforcing the material into complete understanding of the topics.
3.  Key Points to watch for in the next chapter.  These areas at the end of each chapter give me an area to ask her some review questions verbally, without needing to read or even attempt to understand all the material in the chapters that she has been covering.
4.  Error detection.  Students need to examine why certain lines of code are coming up with errors or would produce errors if typed in different ways.  The book shows them the correct and incorrect lines of code so that they can compare and see how important symbols are in their coding.
My favorite....
I DON'T NEED TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT CODING!!!
Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming Volume 1really does provide a full self-paced coding curriculum for students.  It has been written well, as if the teacher is sitting in the room.  The paragraphs are almost conversational in that the teachers words are written and examples given, and your student returns with the codes they are typing on their screen.
Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming Volume 1 is a super affordable option for homeschool families to help their students get that head start in this ever growing option for future careers.  Some computer programing classes can cost you hundreds of dollars, and you can only them with one student.  This makes computer classes out of reach for many families.  Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming Volume 1 is reasonably priced at $25.00 USD and there are more volumes coming soon including Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming Volume 2 - HTML and CSS.  We'll be watching for that in the series.  This is a keeper and I plan on starting Joey on this course as well, when Lydia is finished!
Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to review Code for Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming Volume 1 from Code for Teens.  Visit the link below to see what they thought of this program and how they used it.