Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming (Volume 1) Book Review

My family had the privilege of trying the Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming (Volume 1) from Code for Teens for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Do you have a kid that likes technology and learning code in the family? Did you know that these skills are highly sought after in the job field? Did you know that software engineering, a.k.a. computer coding, is the fastest growing industry in the world right now? Enter Code for Teens!

Code for Teens is a book series that helps teens, or anyone with at least a 6th grade reading level, learn computer programming and computer coding. The first book, Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming (Volume 1), is the only one out at the moment with more volumes on the way. This physical, softcover book is written by homeschooling dad, Jeremy Mortiz as a beginners guide to learning JavaScript. It has 219 full-color glossy pages of one-on-one instruction to learn in a systematic fashion. The illustrations by Jeremy's wife, Christine, are fun and engaging. This book teaches Java without the need for teachers or parents...it empowers the child to teach themselves. These lessons are taught so that the student can move at their own pace and problem solve on their own. The concepts build on each other, so before the student moves ahead they should make sure they understand the topics well. Every chapter includes a quiz, key concepts, drills, an aggregate review, and a DIY project. There is a foreword, an introduction, a word for parents, 10 chapters, a conclusion, answers, and a glossary of terms in this book. The student must have a computer (desktop, laptop, or Chromebook only) and use Google Chrome to be able to work through the book. The introduction and entire first chapter is online as a free sample PDF on the Code for Teens website if you want to check it out for yourself.

Chapters Include the Following:

1. Hello World! Write your first lines of code and make mistakes 
2. Time to Operate Code with numbers and math operators 
3. Comment on the String Section Concatenate strings and make snide comments 
4. Have Some Functions Declare and invoke functions 
5. Shall I Compare? Using booleans, if blocks, conditionals, and comparison operators 
6. Logically Operational Work with null, undefined, and logical operators 
7. Projects Galore Practice methods in lots of short projects 
8. Hip Hip Array! Introduce arrays and do stuff with 'em 
9. Loop a Round Put your code on repeat with loops 
10. Make a Hangman Game Combine concepts from every chapter to build a cool game

Code for Hello World and Follow the Leader

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
I felt the Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming (Volume 1) book would be great for my son Delbin who is 17. He loves playing computer games and he has told me before that he would love to learn how to program them. This book is a great starting point for this and other software engineering fields.

When I was a teenager I learned HTML and a bit of JavaScript all by myself to build websites on Angelfire and GeoCities. I was also a member of a place called POD (place of Dolphins), an online role playing interface and chat server in which we used code to make our dolphin, whale, or porpoise characters interact with one another and the bot. It was a lot of fun manipulating computer code to make it do what I wanted. It was a great learning experience and I felt so empowered learning it all on my own. I, however; didn't have an awesome book to teach me these concepts, so having this for my son is sure handy.

Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming (Volume 1) book and coding on the computer.

We had to download the Google Chrome browser because we didn't have it installed yet. Delbin started at the beginning of the book, working through the chapters. I could see that he was enjoying himself making lines of code. The book is written in an informal tone with a no-pressure approach and has clever illustrations with some humor throughout so that it is more entertaining for the reader. When new terms are introduced they are also defined so that the student gets a handle on the concepts better. These words are in bold. The code is set apart from other text in the book with grey highlighting so you can decipher it better. He liked that the lessons had quizzes, key concepts, drills, and review so he could have a firm understanding before moving onto the next chapter. He also thought it was very cool that he could self-check his answers with the book. Even though it is summer break I didn't have to poke and prod him to do the work because he thought it was fun.

We cannot wait for the second volume of this series which will be about HTML and CSS and how JavaScript can work with these codes. This book has been a great first step to learning computer programming languages. We highly recommend it for any classroom, homeschool library, or as a gift for a tween or teen that is interested or wanting to try something new.

Follow Them on Social Media:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CodeForTeens/ 
• Hashtags: #hsreviews #CodeForTeens #computerprograming #programing #JavaScript

BUY IT
You can purchase the Code For Teens: The Awesome Beginner's Guide to Programming (Volume 1) book online at Code for Teens for only $25 plus free shipping.

Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for Code For Teens...

Learning Resources STEM Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set Review #learningresources

Learning Resources STEM Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set is a fun toy that teaches sequencing, coding, and programming. This toy challenges players to sharpen their analytical thinking, critical thinking, logical thinking, and problem solving skills. For ages 5 and up and grades Kindergarten and up.

STEM

• Science: exploring the science of coding and programming with hands-on activities!
• Technology: building and using tools for amazing discoveries!
• Engineering: designing solutions for real-world problems!
• Math: measuring, recording, and comparing data to draw conclusions!

83 Piece Set Includes:

• 1 Robot mouse named Colby: has a switch on the bottom with 3 positions (off and two speeds: normal to use on plastic maze base grid pieces and hyper for use on carpet and other more uneven surfaces). Colorful buttons on top make him do things in the order they are pressed and are: forward (blue arrow that points towards his nose, makes him move forward 5"), rotate right (purple arrow that points right when he is facing away from you, makes Colby rotate right 90 degrees), reverse (yellow arrow that points towards his tail end, makes him move backward 5"), rotate left (orange arrow that points left when he is facing away from you, makes Colby rotate left 90 degrees), action (red circle that makes him either: move forward and back, squeak loudly, or chirp 3 times with lit up eyes), clear (yellow circle clears all coding if you make a mistake or want to do another sequence, has confirmation tone), go (green circle that is the last command to be pressed when the sequence (up to 40 steps) is completed and Colby is set down on the maze). Takes 3 AAA batteries, not included.
• 16 Plastic maze base grid pieces: connect together to form a larger board or any configuration that goes together.
• 22 Plastic maze walls: to be placed around the grids in the crevices so that the mouse can go through the maze to get to the cheese.
• 3 Plastic tunnels: can be placed on the grid or surface for the mouse to go under and through.
• 1 Plastic cheese wedge: to be placed at the end of the maze for the mouse to find. This is magnetic and sticks to the mouses nose when touched by it.
• 30 Double-sided coding cards: have one side with just the arrow and the other side with the mouse and the arrow. These help you plot and track the mouse's path and order in which the code needs to be pressed on Colby for him to get to the cheese in the maze.
• 10 Double-sided activity cards: help you build the mazes from pictures on the cards. These are made in order of difficulty, 1 being the easiest and 20 being the hardest.
• 1 Multilingual activity guide: is instructions and directions for how to play.

How To Play:

1. Pick an activity card with one of the challenge mazes.
2. Build your maze from the picture on the card or just build your own: by connecting the maze grid pieces together and adding the walls, tunnels, and cheese.
3. Use either side of the coding cards to create a step-by-step path for Colby to find the cheese.
4. Program the sequence of steps with the buttons on the mouse.
5. Set Colby down where he is suppose to start in the maze, press go, and watch Colby race to find the cheese.

Teela and Zari playing with the Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set.

What We Thought:
My daughters who are 6 and 8 tried out the Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set. This is a neat toy. It teaches some very important skills and I love that it is educational and that my girls enjoyed it so much. We love bringing this toy out for when we need a break from book work during homeschooling. The girls liked making their own mazes and figuring out what code to program into Colby, the mouse. They also thought that it was funny that the mouse made little sounds occasionally and loved that you could program an action into it to make the mouse do random things. Someday we'd love to get the purple mouse, Jack, that is sold separately, so we can have even more fun with this set and race the two!

The Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set is fun and educational! I recommend it to people that love games, puzzles, and educational toys! This is also a great addition to any homeschool environment. It is a great family centered toy and wonderful to teach and improve STEM and mental skills.

BUY IT


DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free to facilitate this review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links can be found in this post. Thank you for your support of this blog!