Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Code for Real: Teach kids to program with drag and drop blocks

code-for-real.pages.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–6 of 6 posts

Re: Code for Real: Teach kids to program with drag and drop blocks

#2

Post by eappleby »

Code for Real is a no-cost, ad-free tablet app that teaches kids to code using drag-and-drop blocks. Students can follow step-by-step tutorials to build projects like a virtual pet they can feed, play with, and put to sleep, or they can jump into the sandbox and create anything they imagine using a variety of starter templates.

I built Code for Real for my 9-year-old daughter, who wants to learn to program (mostly for a middle school entrance exam). She had been using Scratch (a free block-based coding app by MIT) for a couple of years, but there is a big gap between Scratch and traditional programming. This app is meant to help her (and others) make that jump while still being fun and approachable.

Download: https://code-for-real.pages.dev/get

Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/products/code-for-real

Re: Code for Real: Teach kids to program with drag and drop blocks

#5

Post by eappleby »

beardyw wrote: post #4

How does it compare to Scratch? I've used Scratch and I liked it a lot. My granddaughter used it a school. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_(programming_language)

Scratch uses blocks that represent programming methodologies, like a block for loops or a block for sound. Those blocks snap together and you have a sound on a loop.

Code for Real uses blocks of real HTML, CSS, and Javascript. You set IDs and Classes on each block and can assign styling to them. The same way you would build an actual website or app. The challenge that kids run into (and adults) when trying to program is understanding how the blocks fit together, how they fit together, and what attributes apply to each element. The tutorials walk them through step-by-step how to create a working application explaining what each piece means. It can still be a lot for some students, but there are tutorials of varying complexity, so hopefully it will be beneficial for everyone.

Post reply on HN