There are many options for kids learning to code, Breakout Mentors is the most personalized and designed for long-term growth. Discover how your son or daughter will advance through consistent challenges from an impressive college instructor.
Each student is carefully matched with an exciting mentor who will customize the project-based learning. Our curriculum, constantly improved since 2011, is the perfect blend of structure and open-ended projects for independence and grit.
Hold a 90 minute session with the same mentor each week, fit conveniently into your schedule. Students keep advancing year-round at the perfect pace and are proud of the fun games and projects they create.
Hear From a Student
Advanced Computer Science For Kids Learning to Code
Many Breakout Mentors 8th grader 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 8th grader dream up?
What parents say…
Breakout Mentors did a wonderful job matching my daughter with a mentor – she is perfect! My daughter told me that she learned more from one session than her last 3 summer camps combined. She was so excited! Thank you – this is exactly what we were looking for!
Mother of 12 year old girl in Palo Alto
We just passed our second anniversary with Breakout Mentors. Our 12-year-old son has had two mentors and they’ve both been terrific: enthusiastic, knowledgeable, professional, and patient. They’ve been great about building a curriculum on the fly around his interests and keeping him engaged and learning. Highly recommended.
Breakout Mentors was exactly what I was looking for. We started 2 years ago when my daughter was 11 and now she is an expert Scratch coder which translated easily into learning Python! Her mentors don’t tell her what to do, they help her figure it out. They push her to make her projects better and more complex. They treat her like a peer and do things like white boarding sessions and have passionate discussions about programming logic during her sessions. Both of her mentors have been women, which has been amazing. And an added benefit is she loves going to the CAL engineering library every week, wants to be an engineer and attend MIT! It’s ignited her passion about STEM subjects and she is so driven now. This program is truly amazing. I can’t say enough good things about it.
What students say…
