Looking for coding games for smart kids?

[yardely26]

Hello Everyone,
From the ages of 6 to 12, your child is learning some foundational concepts and skills built upon as they grow older. Nowadays coding games can teach your children concepts that many of us took a lifetime to learn. The top 3 coding games for your smart kids:
Minecraft
CodeCombat
Lego Mindstorms

 

[LTomy]

Hi yardely26,

I do not see how Minecraft can help a kid to learn coding? Are you talking about mod creation?

 

[BorkedSystem32]

I do not see how Minecraft can help a kid to learn coding? Are you talking about mod creation?

These spam posts seem to have been popping-up recently, so it's better to just ignore them, really(although, some of them like this one, do allow for some good conversations to start).

In regards to your question, modding counts as a way of learning programming by putting a person's current knowledge into practice while at the same time, further building on it. Of course, while many kids(in this case, the 6-12 range as specified by the OP) will be interested in modding, only around the ages of 10-12+ may a child be able to start grasping onto basic computer science/programming concepts. And learning how to mod a game like Minecraft also takes some learning to do, as you need to become acquainted with the tools involved.

In my opinion, a platform like Roblox is much better for learning how to program, as it uses Lua(a modified version of it), which is a simple, interpreted scripting language. And instead of modding, you get to build your own games which allows for much more creativity. Minecraft on the other hand, uses Java, which is slightly more complicated due to it being a compiled language and the presence of object-oriented programming concepts.

 

[LTomy]

It kind of look like spam, but what has that person to gain from that ?

Yeah, modding improve coding skills. I was asking, because he simply said "Minecraft". Playing Minecraft, by itself, does not.

Java is interpreted. It is compiled into ByteCode (Not into binary). Lua is probably easier to deal with than Java, but Java stays easier than someting like C or C++.

 

[Tombezlar]

The most interesting conversations arise in the spam threads)

If we're talking about a combination of gaming and learning to program, I'd recommend https://codegym.cc/.
You may not become a strong programmer, but futurama-style quests and java beginner's level you can get.
But if the kids have already started playing Meinkraft, you'll never get them to learn anything else.