The niche of learn-to-code platforms online can feel a tad overcrowded at time, partly because there are lots of platforms focused on different programming languages, age groups, challenge levels, price ranges, and types of coding, and partly because many platforms simply aren’t all that good.
This can make it tricky for Aussie parents and educators alike to find the best educational platform for their kids. And while all learn-to-code platforms all have their Pros and Cons, some do have much more of the former than they do of the latter. One prime example of that is CodeMonkey. Parents or teachers looking for top educators for Aussie kids in the K to 8 range can hardly do better than CodeMonkey. We’ll explore why below.
What Makes CodeMonkey Ideal for Aussie Kids?
1. Various Packages for Everyone’s Preferences
When picking an education platform as either a parent or a teacher, the first complication you often run into is finding a tool with the right subscription package for the job. Many platforms either don’t work for the number of kids in your class or don’t fit the exact difficulty level you are looking for.
That’s why educational platforms that offer various and well-thought-out subscription plans are very useful for educators. In CodeMonkey’s case, it has separate packages for school and for home use, and it also offers different plans for each too. For home use, for example, CodeMonkey offers a “parent plan” for those who want to use CodeMonkey as an additional supplement to their kid’s regular education courses and a “homeschool plan” that allows access for up to 3 kids and 2 parents, and that’s meant as a singularly sufficient plan, either for homeschooling or just for students that don’t study coding at school.
2. Affordable Cost for Lots of Value
CodeMonkey’s plans for their parent plans cost between $9.95 and $4.95 per month, depending on whether you get a monthly, quarterly, or annual subscription (not counting any additional discounts you may find). The price range for the homeschool plan is $13.45 to $9.95 per month, while school plans can be pricier and vary even more based on the class sizes you’re looking at.
Overall, however, these subscription plans are much more affordable than those of some of the bigger platforms on the market. And, while CodeMonkey doesn’t have a free subscription option, it offers a lot of value for its price, much more so than some of the free learn-to-code courses you can find online.
3. Great Attention Retention for Young Kids
While the coding education platforms online are indeed numerous, as we mentioned above, one thing many educators have noticed is that there aren’t all that many good platforms for the K-8 age range, even though there are many platforms meant for beginners.
The reason for that is simple and it’s that it is difficult to keep young kids’ attention focused on something as challenging as coding. This is probably the biggest reason why CodeMonkey stands out so much, as it’s excellent at keeping kids’ attention on its courses. CodeMonkey achieves this through various means:
Gamification
Kids love games and CodeMonkey takes full advantage of that by framing almost all if its materials through the form of coding games.
Different Modes of Play
The two main play modes CodeMonkey utilizes are story mode and skill mode. Story mode is at the base of the course, as it guides kids through each course by gradually increasing the difficulty level of each subsequent challenge while keeping kids engaged in the story of the course.
Skill mode, on the other hand, helps kids practice a particular skill in a fun way when story mode has revealed a certain problem area the child needs to work on.
Kid-Friendly Graphics
At first glance, CodeMonkey’s graphics don’t appear as polished or sophisticated as those of some of its more expensive competitors. This isn’t really the case, however, nor is it a matter of price. Instead, CodeMonkey’s graphics are specifically made to be colorful and quirky, so that they appeal as much as possible to students in the K-8 age range.
Short but Effective
Another aspect of CodeMonkey that people often try to frame in a negative light is the relative shortness of its courses. While the platform offers hundreds of different courses, they are shorter than what some educators may be used to from other platforms.
This too is intentional, however, as it’s meant to make the courses better suited for younger audiences with shorter attention spans. With children in the K-8 group, it’s simply better to have three separate short courses than one long one.
Beginner-Friendly Programming Languages
CodeMonkey teaches two programming languages Python and CoffeeScript. Python is well-known to be quite beginner-friendly, while CoffeeScript is a beginner-friendly version of JavaScript. This is a huge boon for educators and their students, as learning JavaScript is both essential and quite frustrating for beginners (let alone kids). CoffeeScript fixes that problem by giving kids a much simpler language to learn while they are young and then effortlessly transition to JavaScript later on in life.