It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.
― Tony Robbins
Consistency is the secret to the personalized approach for kids learning to code.
There is no perfect curriculum or teacher that can reach your goals in one day. You want to provide your son or daughter a long-term excitement for coding and excellent fundamentals, which takes time.
Our mentor of the month Anna Verwillow exhibits this commitment and steady progress. She is a current Stanford student who grew up in Palo Alto and had a lot of coding experience herself when she was younger. She went to the all girls Castilleja High School, which has an impressive engineering program.
Let’s get to know her thoughts on kids coding!
Why is it important for kids to start coding when young?
Coding in the modern age has become a basic requirement for many jobs and career paths because computation holds so much power as a tool. Fostering fluency in programming and normalcy in using code to solve problems—no matter what a child is interested in—is a wonderful gift to their future.
What do you find rewarding about teaching kids how to code?
I love working with the students and getting to know them, learning what excites them and scares them, what challenges them and what they’re comfortable with, and what they want to learn or work on in coding and then figuring out how to get them there. I am thankful for the one-on-one environment because it creates the opportunity to build stronger individual friendships.
What advice do you have for kids learning how to code?
Have fun with it! Programming is a skill that takes practice, but hopefully we can make the practice fun, creative, and challenging while also building the underlying skills such that you can look back and see how far you’ve come while enjoying your time spent.
Impressive Results as She Enters Her 3rd School Year
Anna is now a senior at Stanford studying Computer Science, which means she is entering her 3rd school year as a mentor. This consistency working with her students allows for incredible results over the months and years of their coding journey!
Here is one example of her student’s impressive progress. We provide our customers monthly recaps to keep the parents in the loop and track their child’s learning progress. Aaron is 13 years old and learning Java, which he used to create his own math puzzle game!
What are your goals?
Do your goals as a parent align with your son or daughter’s? We hear most parents are trying to encourage their interest in a productive way and build a solid foundation before high school.
It is easy to do a summer camp, but is that enough to reach your goal? Does that develop the necessary critical thinking and 21st century skills? What does consistency look like?
If you think a 1-on-1 mentor may be the solution for your son or daughter, let’s connect by phone. We are currently pairing new students with exciting mentors!