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
Provide Your Daughter a Female Role Model
There is a proven drop off in girls’ interest in coding as they get older. According to Girls Who Code, 66% of girls ages 6-12 are interested, 32% ages 13-17, and just 4% entering college. The best way to sustain interest is with a female role model and continuous personalized learning opportunities.
Breakout Mentors is currently working with 27 girls learning to code. In our Girls Coding Academy each girl is paired one-on-one with a female mentor excited to share her passion with the younger generation!
Girl Students
Paired With
Female Mentor
If Preferred
Beginner Kids Coding
The first kids coding experience is pivotal as beginners will quickly decide if they are interested in continuing. They need to be challenged at the perfect pace, with the support necessary to overcome challenges. It requires structure to learn the fundamentals, but enough flexibility to have fun bringing their own creative ideas to life.
Most Breakout Mentors 8 to 11 year-old beginners start with the drag-and-drop coding language Scratch. Kids are able to make fun games right away while mastering the fundamentals. Many older kids are interested in immediately jumping into a language with typed code, like Python or Java. We start with a series of small projects to establish the basics. Students quickly progress to making games like Pong, Breakout, and Space Invaders with their own creative features.
Regardless of the programming language, Breakout Mentors goes beyond tutoring – our mentors constantly adjust the difficulty to be just right. Kids are able to advance at their own pace, always challenged and having fun.
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
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!
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…
