I confess to being less than a novice when it comes to coding, but I also confess that I can never learn too much and I love to get my kids excited about new things. That’s why I didn’t protest too much when my son asked me if he could create his own Minecraft server. Instead, I just asked him to write up a proposal regarding the project. How would he accomplish the goal? How could he ensure the safety of my home network? What skills and knowledge would he have to acquire in order to bring his project to fruition?
Now that he has operated his server for 9 or more months, he has become the “go-to” guy for his friends when they need assistance. He talks about wanting to learn some code and being able to do more with his server and his game. I encourage him to learn what he can, but games can only take him so far. That’s why I got really excited when I learned about Mozilla’s “Summer Code Party.” Through the Summer Code Party links I learned about “Code Academy” and have even created my own account to learn about some of the basic principles behind coding.
I mentioned the Summer Code Party to my son, and now I have begun thinking about organizing a “MozParty” table event at my home for my son and his friends to get together for a little summer learning, fellowship, and coding fun.
Whether you have kids or not, you are never too old to learn something new. If you’ve ever thought about learning some of the principles behind coding, I encourage you to check out the Summer Code Party. Happy summer fun and summer learning!
Education Matters 