Scratch is the block-based language millions of children learn to code with, and it removes the single biggest obstacle for a beginner: typos. You cannot misspell a block.
This course teaches Scratch properly rather than as a toy - events, loops, conditionals, variables, broadcasts and costumes - so a child finishes able to build a game of their own rather than only able to follow along with one.
Start this course freeFull lessons from this course are readable here, with no account - the explanation, a worked example and the mistakes children usually make:
Each lesson opens with the child’s own coding buddy explaining the idea. The explanation is spoken aloud, typed on screen and performed by an animation at the same time - the same sentence in all three, so a child who reads slowly can listen, and a child who is not reading at all can watch.
After the explanation come the practice games: spot the bug, predict the output, order the code, and a written challenge that runs the child’s real code and checks it.
It is the easiest possible start, because a child cannot misspell a block. This course involves some reading, so a child who is not reading independently yet will get on best with an adult alongside them.
Yes. The blocks stand for the same ideas every text language uses - loops, conditionals, variables and events. A child who understands a Scratch forever loop already understands a while loop.