Homeschool Code Academy Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

It's official, I suppose... I have a coding fiend on my hands. I suppose I should have expected this, given the amount of time he spends trying to program his calculator, but I didn't really anticipate what came next, once we actually let him take formal coding classes. Letting him try out Python for Beginners: Learn Coding at Home from Homeschool Code Academy was definitely a good way to channel the coding interest! 

 But then I started finding him sneaking over to his coding tab on the computer when he should have been doing his math or grammar (is there some way to set up a student account on the computer so that they can only have access to one site at a time? I can't figure out how I would manage that...). So really, it's been something he enjoys immensely, but also something he enjoys so much that he can't be trusted to do his normal work! I think that online courses are something we need to use very, very sparingly at this point, but one the days that all the regular school work and chores get done and behavior has been good? This is a great reward!

 

 

The program is intended to be completed independently, which is a huge bonus in my book. The only coding I know is a tiny bit of html, and I definitely have zero Python knowledge. I didn't even know it was a programming language until we were selected for this review! My 11-year-old asked for library books to supplement his knowledge on the topic, so he read through a couple books on Python while using the course as well, which certainly helped supplement his learning.

 

In fact, at this point he has far surpassed me in technological prowess. I had to ask him to help me get a screenshot of his completed project (below), and everything he did to make this happen was completely foreign to me... Hopefully soon he can use his newfound computer skills for good!

 

Lesson length can vary from student to student, but I found that a lot of these lessons took a long time, though it's hard to know if that's because there was a lot of subject matter being covered or if it was because my son was fooling around, trying to go above and beyond, trying to complete his own independent projects... I'm fairly certain there was no Pokemon project that needed to be completed, and yet I found him researching different Pokemon and incorporating that into a separate tab he had opened? I think that he was also completing a lot more than he needed to be completing in a single sitting. I had to pry him away from the computer, because he would just keep going after reaching the end of a lesson! Self-discipline is definitely something we need to work more on. Despite what I thought was a rather slow speed, he still completed more than 50% of the course (to which we have access for 10 months) in a little over a month. So... I suppose he's not so slow after all?

 

During his time taking this course, my 11-year-old learned about text-to-speech variables, lists and tuples, input, strings, turtle graphics, and more. His favorite thing that he has worked on so far is the turtle graphics, and he hopes to continue soon! Once we can master self-control a little better, I'm sure he'll be back with great excitement.

 

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