What is the average screen time of your child?
Don’t know? Look at these statistics!
Children aged 8-12 years spend 4-6 hours every day using digital devices. For teenagers (12+), the average screen time goes up to nine hours a day, according to AACAP.
Digital screens have become an essential part of our lives today. There’s no harm in using smartphones or tablets for kids. However, as parents, you must ensure that your kid is doing some productive activity on his/her phone.
What if, instead of wasting time watching movies or playing games, your kid becomes a junior developer and learns how to build mobile apps?
Yes, it’s possible. Learning mobile app development is very easy, even for beginners. Kids learn fundamentals of programming and build interactive apps with MIT App Inventor. Several courses are available where they teach kids how to build a mobile app.
We bring you the five best mobile app development platforms that teach coding to kids in a fun and engaging way and enable them to create amazing apps on their devices.
So, let’s explore these courses.
1. Khired Kids
Khired Kids tops our list. It is one of the best platforms for kids to learn mobile app development and different programming languages.
Three qualities make Khired Kids unique.
First, they start with basic coding concepts like loops, functions, variables, conditions, etc. With this approach, the instructors make sure that kids with no coding background also get familiar with the exciting world of programming.
Secondly, Khired Kids has a team of foreign-qualified instructors from Luxembourg. They have extensive experience teaching robotics and coding in Europe. Hence, in their mode of teaching, curriculum, and evaluation process, everything meets international standards.
Lastly, the mobile app development course by Khired Kids offers hands-on experience in MIT App Inventor. It is an exciting app developed by MIT to make learning coding easy.
So, by taking this course, your child would be able to create mobile apps on his/her own and become a junior app developer.
2. Create & Learn
Create & Learn is a US-based organization that offers different programming courses to kids, including mobile app development. They use block-based coding concepts to help students understand complex coding concepts. The coding games also make learning more fun and exciting.
What distinguishes Create & Learn is their curriculum. It is designed by experts from Google, Apple, Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. Besides, most of their instructors are based in the US. They are highly trained and have more than three years of experience in their relevant fields.
In this mobile app development course, kids learn to design app layouts and code active components. Similarly, they get live instructors from their teachers to build a riddle game.
Eventually, children experience what it looks like when developing innovative mobile apps in real life. The final projects also give them self-confidence and a sense of accomplishment that they can do amazing things.
This confidence helps them a lot in their programming career.
3. Tinker Coders
Tinker Coders has designed an online mobile app development course for grades 3-8 kids. The course teaches kids to design and develop exciting apps and games for various devices.
However, no prior coding experience is required to take this course.
For this course, Tinker Coders uses visual block-based programming. Students learn how to integrate different layouts, collect data from phone sensors, and design app interfaces. Similarly, kids also get hands-on experience in the process of publishing apps on Play Store, App Store, or Amazon.
The course also introduces kids to project-based learning. It allows them to craft their imaginations into realities. Besides, students learn to solve complex coding problems.
Finally, they use MIT App Inventor to develop mobile apps and share projects with their friends.
4. KidoCode
KidoCode offers a range of mobile app development courses – from basics to advanced. These courses are specifically designed to consider the learning abilities of kids.
The beginner-level course, for example, has five different stages.
In the first module, kids learn how to design visually appealing mobile apps and make them responsive on different screens. The second module covers the process of adding features to an app and improving its functionality.
As the course progresses, students learn to make their apps look great on small screens. Once the app is finalized, kids test it on various devices. The last stage is to publish the app so that users can download and use it.
The instructors are friendly and experts in their fields. So, your child can learn basic to advanced coding concepts by completing this online course.
5. Codingal
Mobile app development course by Codingal is tailored for 4-8 grade students. It has 36 lessons and 40+ activities focused on building and publishing mobile apps on the Play Store and App Store.
In this course, kids will be familiarized with the basic principles of app building. They will explore user interfaces, buttons, labels, layouts, and palettes. Similarly, instructors will also teach them how to add location sensors, audio, and videos to mobile apps.
Students will learn how to text and email from apps and add a sign-in feature. A short lesson on APIs is also added so that kids can understand databases and storage. This way, Codingal offers a complete package where kids get familiar with the complete process of mobile app development and become junior developers.
Most importantly, Codingal is accredited by STEM.org, which shows they have an extensive curriculum around STEM that is crucial to developing 21st-century skills.
Final Thoughts
Mobile app development is an in-demand skill today. Millions of mobile apps are downloaded every day worldwide. So, by learning this skill at an early age, kids can start their programming careers and become successful junior developers.
Considering the importance of learning coding, we have shortlisted the five most amazing mobile app development platforms for kids. These include Khired Kids, Create & Learn, Tinker Coders, KidoCode, and Codingal.
All these platforms not only cover basic coding concepts they also engage students with hands-on activities. Hence, by completing any of these courses, your child can start building his/her own apps or games.
