Summer is an excellent opportunity for kids to code — more hours are available to discover new interests or dive into passions. Kids coding summer camps are extremely popular, however you don’t want a one-size-fits-all camp. It should be personalized to ensure they learn and have fun.
Our year-round mentoring pairs each kid with an impressive college instructor for weekly 90 minute sessions. Our curriculum, constantly improved since 2011, is the perfect blend of structure and open-ended projects for independence and grit.
During the summer we offer a personalized camp option to accelerate the learning. These are 3 hours per day with a private instructor, whether one-on-one or with a couple friends.
Hear From a Student
Advanced Computer Science For Kids Learning to Code
Many Breakout Mentors 10 year-old students are too advanced for the typical kid coding classes and camps. They find each offering just goes over the same things, never advancing beyond the basics. Or when covering tougher material, it is in a cookie-cutter, plug-and-play manner.
Most kids who start with Breakout Mentors will first solidify their fundamentals through making games in Python or Java. Once they have mastered the basics, the sky is the limit. The one-on-one mentoring format is perfect for personalization and challenging advanced kids. Some Breakout Mentors students with the help of their mentor have focused on:
- iOS, Android, or web apps with complex backend functionality
- Unity for 3D game programming and Virtual Reality projects
- Arduino for circuits and Internet of Things projects
- Competition programming at USACO platinum level (see our USACO Competition Programming Academy)
- Low-level C programming to make own programming language and compiler
- Self-study for the AP Computer Science test (see our Computer Science Track)
- Data science projects using NBA and other sports data (see our Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Academy)
What exciting focus will your 10 year-old dream up?
What parents say…
Breakout Mentors was exactly what we were looking for when our 11 year old son asked to learn programming. He connected quickly with his mentor, who has taught him things beyond our knowledge. After his last session, he tried to explain to me some aspect of the programming he just learned and then said ‘I feel so proud of myself.’ We are proud of him too and thankful for Breakout Mentors.
Father of 6th grade boy in Palo Alto
My son was interested in coding from a very young age. We have tons of books at home, however, only Breakout Mentors actually helped my son to build on his interest and develop some skills. The lessons are fun and introduce serious coding concepts in a way kids can grasp. My son started with making games in Scratch. Moving from little projects to bigger and more complex ones, he has learned the fundamentals and now is moving to Java. He shows me his work after each lesson since he is very proud of his accomplishments and can’t wait to show them off.
My son loves video games and says he wants to create them when he’s older. We’ve sent him to many summer camps to learn beginner coding. Though he enjoyed them, he basically played video games all day. With Breakout Mentors he is finally actually learning, rather than just playing. I know the mentor is channeling my son’s excitement about computer games in a productive way. My son always looks forward to meeting his mentor.
What students say…
