STEM camps for Young Adults - opinion

I'm dating myself with this question......

Thoughts on coding camps for children? My 9 year old son loves ROBLOX and plays all the time, previously he was into Minecraft.

There is a camp at one of the Universities teaching kids to create, code and publish games via ROBLOX. The link is below. My son is reluctant to try new things, but he is smart and has had his own gaming rig since he was 6.

I want him to take it to the next level, but for things like this he doesn't want dad teaching him, but the idea of a week long summer camp has him interested. The cost is ~970, the hope is he gets bit by the bug and begins to take off. I scheduled it at the beginning of the summer, so he has 3 months to continue on if he so chooses. We play basketball and sports together and have a great relationship but for this venture he to wants be a little more autonomous. I'm okay with that.....

https://www.idtech.com/courses/roblox-entrepreneur-create-code-publish-games

I'm trying to give my kids the best direction I know how and help build their tool box up so they can be prepared for college and eventually employment.

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Comments

Mooseboost

I can absolutely support the idea of a coding camp. I think anything that can help get kids involved and learning is always worth it, within reason of course. Not only will it give them the tech skills, but it is also an important opportunity to develop interpersonal skills with other kids who are interested in the same things.

JoJoCal19

Ha! My 7 and 5 year old love ROBLOX. The 7 year old loves to create things in general. When she turns 8 later this year I’m planning on showing her the creation tool suite. Depending on how she likes that, I am planning on teaching her their programming language Lua.

I think the STEM boot camp sounds amazing!

the_Grinch

When I see stuff like this or headlines like this I go "man what the heck was I doing as a kid?" Most of these kids are lightyears ahead of me when I was their age.

DatabaseHead

the_Grinch wrote: »

When I see stuff like this or headlines like this I go "man what the heck was I doing as a kid?" Most of these kids are lightyears ahead of me when I was their age.

You and me both. My mother and father were careerist, while I didn't get pushed into anything besides golf and tennis I ended up picking up their work ethic, nonstop.

With my son and daughter I am trying to get WAY out in front of the curve so they can make something of themselves and on the back end they can collect and reap from their hard efforts......

My daughter used to go to Math camps, now she is 15 and in high school, but ahead of the curve. Physics and Algebra already with Stats and Algebra 2 / Trig coming up her sophomore year. Fast tracking for a degree in mathematics. In fact her and a friend of hers are traveling out to UCLA this year to look at the University.

The boy is some what of an enigma at the moment, but has major interest in these camps so we shall see. I'm trying to foster an environment for success within reason....

UnixGuy

I'm not a dad yet so take anything I say with a grain of salt...

If I had kids I'd focus on getting them playing (outside), making friends, joining sports team, learning a martial art, or dancing, or gymnastics, or horse riding...

I think those things teach kids valuable life skills and play a crucial role in their emotional intelligence development..

Technology changes a lot and there will be time and place to learn coding skills...and their interest might change later..

but I know nothing...this is basically the only qualification I have on the matter

DatabaseHead

Good stuff Unix.

For sure, daughter plays select volleyball and high school. Son is picking up basketball, we have a court and hoop out back of our house.

So the focus for activities is there, I am just trying to get them a little added advantage and keep in mind this is a joint decision. If they fight me or show no interest I'm out.

Just wanted to mention that....

the_Grinch

Haha, I might need to add "Former Child" to my resume...maybe that's what's been holding me back all these years!