Today we have outlined some of the best coding bootcamps for kids and teens to help you find a path of study for your children to develop these essential skills while exploring their creative curiosity and working their brains, regardless of age or previous coding experience.
With the surge in popularity in online education, gaming, and business, the need for experienced coders in today’s job market is only going to increase in coming years. For those who want to learn coding, a degree in computer science might be inaccessible or outside of their comfort zone. It also might be too early for your child to begin studying advanced coding languages. Many companies offer coding bootcamps for adults to gain familiarity and updated skills in a structured, non-university environment, but some cutting edge companies such as Create & Learn and ABCMouse offer coding camps for younger developers as well.
Discover fun coding bootcamps for kids and teens
Create & Learn is a STEM education startup with a mission to make Computer Science accessible and fun for kids. That’s why we developed an outstanding curriculum with tech industry professionals to teach coding through popular platforms such as Minecraft, Scratch, and Roblox. We also have great classes on NASA, Robotics, and Python as well, so there’s something for everyone.
Aside from our individual classes, we offer coding camps during summer and winter breaks, where classes are clustered together for a comprehensive coding education that kids love. Parents love our camps, too. Our camps are consistently rated as 5-stars by parents, and we have been recognized for our excellent, experienced teachers by Minecraft Education, Meta’s Engineer for the Week, ActivityHero, and Hulafrog. We have free trial classes and a full satisfaction guarantee, so consider signing up your kids for a coding bootcamp today.
Coding bootcamps for elementary kids
Here are a few award-winning coding bootcamps for elementary students to grow their computer science skills.
1. Coding Starter Pathway
The Starter Pathway is the perfect introduction to coding and game design. It's a curriculum that comprises the two most popular platforms for kids on the Internet: Minecraft and Scratch. In this Scratch Ninja course, kids will learn to code through a progressively harder series of hands-on lessons where they design their own games and stories using beginner-friendly block coding. Once they have mastered the basics, they'll move onto Minecraft Modding Quest where they will learn how to create elements of their own in a game they love. This is one reason why Minecraft is such a powerful tool for educating kids!
Grades: 2 - 5
2. Scratch Ninja
Speaking of Scratch, this is a Scratch bootcamp series of classes that can be taken alone. Since being created in 2003 by the Scratch Foundation, a non-profit organization run by MIT computer scientists, Scratch has become the largest community for kids to learn coding. Scratch uses block-based coding, rather than text, so that children can learn computer science fundamentals in a colorful and fun environment. In this live online class, coding instructors guide kids through the stages of coding simple programs in Scratch 1, towards complex games and animations in Scratch 2 and 3. This is our favorite class, and we are so sure that your kids will love it that Create & Learn has a trial class for free.
Grades: 2 - 5
3. Scratch Junior
This is the best starter class for your littles. Scratch Junior was developed to bring the magic of Scratch to even younger kids. It's a beginner-friendly app that has a drag-and-drop interface, much like Scratch. In this course of six forty-five minute sessions, your child will be guided through the fundamentals of coding with an experienced teacher. They'll learn how to make fun games and cute animations out of blocks of code that are colorful and snap together like LEGOs, using the ScratchJr app.
Grades: K - 2
4. Young Kids' Art Camp
In this live online digital art bootcamp, your child will use digital tools to make a different artistic project in each session, such as castle architecture, optical illusions, drawings, digital photography, stop motion video, digital art design, and more. Our instructors encourage students to study and appreciate the artistic qualities of the world around them, such as patterns, symmetry, and perspective, as well as encourage them to use art to explore emotions and feelings.
Grades: 1 - 4
5. Art Minded Bootcamp Pathway
This is a course bundle that serves as a thorough design bootcamp. In this Art Minded curriculum, your child will progress through Scratch Ninja, the Budding Digital Artist Course, and Intermediate Game Building, giving them skills to not only make games, but also to design their own animated films, characters, and stories using code.
Grades: 4 - 8
6. Minecraft Modding Bootcamp
We love Minecraft. Aside from being the best-selling game of all time, it is also a great way to learn about coding for kids. By crafting, mining, and exploring, kids gain confidence and have fun, but our classes take things to the next level. It is an exciting experience to build new components to the games we love, and our coding instructors can guide your child through creating and launching their own unique Minecraft mods.
Grades: 2 - 5
7. Intermediate Game Building Club
Kids who love gaming will love this series of Scratch lessons that focus exclusively on game design. Expert teachers will guide each child through creating a virtual pet, Soccer pong, and other great games while mastering skills such as AR, conditionals, variables, and loops. Mastering all these concepts will also make learning Python or JavaScript easier to understand later.
Grades: 2 - 6
Coding bootcamps for middle school kids
Explore some of the most popular programming bootcamps for middle school students.
8. Mobile Coding for Apps and Games
In this bootcamp, students will learn how to write code intended for mobile devices. Kids will learn to code the layout design and UI of mobile applications, enable elements such as display information, data inputs, and event handling, as well as activating device sensors to give games an interactive feel. Design layout and UI of mobile applications. Kids gain confidence by creating complex applications that they can use to impress their friends while improving their STEM skills in fun, small groups. Create complex applications that involve networking and multi-user apps!
Grades: 4 - 7
9. Smart Devices: Arduino for Kids
Aside from coding, computer science involves learning about the electronic components and hardware that makes computers and the Internet possible. Electronics of all kinds surround us, but few people ever have the chance to build a system using circuit boards, processors, and wires. Arduino is one of the most popular programming devices for children who want to learn about robotics, electronic circuits, and other interesting structures working under the hood of their computers.
For kids who like tinkering with computers, this is where the rubber meets the road. We use an Arduino simulator and no physical device is required, but if you prefer, an Arduino starter kit can be purchased online. The same code your student creates can be used on the device without any changes. Get started with awesome Arduino projects for kids today!
Grades: 4 - 9
10. Easy Website Design with WIX
Learn how to build beautiful professional looking websites for yourself, friends, and communities using Wix. With over 200 millions users world wide, Wix is the leading website builder for designing, creating, and managing websites exactly the way you want - and it's easy to learn! This class covers a wide range of topics in Web Design, starting from the basics of how to use WIX and how to structure your website, to designing layout, choosing color schemes, and even to creating a web store to sell products.
Grades: 5 - 12
11. Game Creators Bootcamp Pathway
In the Game Creators learning pathway for middle schoolers, students will meet with a professional instructor in small groups of their peers to work through Scratch Ninja, Intermediate Game Building, Minecraft Mod Quest, and Coding with Roblox Studio, where they will use text-based coding for the first time to design their own games on the popular game design platform.
Grades: 4 - 8
Coding bootcamps for high school teens
Check out some of the top programming bootcamps for high school students. Each of these includes numerous courses in a progression that builds skills and uses real-world technologies.
12. Curious Explorers Bootcamp Pathway
If your teen loves gaming and you would like to show them how games are designed, you might just foster a lifelong friendship with coding. STEM professionals get to work in interesting fields and gain a higher average income than their non-STEM peers, so if your child is curious about software development, then our Curious Explorers program will introduce them to coding with Accelerated Scratch, proceeding to Mobile Coding for Apps and Games, Python for AI, Build Your Web, and Cloud Computing for Web Apps. It is a great curriculum for kids to move from beginners to advanced by mastering concepts and building their own projects with the help of our expert teachers.
Grades: 6 - 12
13. Coding Essentials Bootcamp Pathway
If you want your teen to get a solid foundation in computer science, consider our Coding Essentials pathway. They will take four courses: Accelerated Scratch, Build your Web, Mobile Coding for Apps and Games, and Python for AI. The journey of this pathway brings kids up to speed about coding fundamentals with block-based coding in Scratch before moving to text-based languages such as Python and JavaScript.
Grades: 6 - 12
14. AI & Data Science Pathway
If your child has already built a foundation in coding, have heard about data science and would like to know more, our AI and Data Science Pathway will help them explore this fascinating realm of computer science technology by accessing databases, calling APIs, and interacting with the technology used in artificial intelligence and advanced robotics.
For students interested in careers in engineering, design, or computer science, this could be a perfect jump start for their education. In this curriculum, students will take Python for AI, Data Science with Python and Pandas, AI Creators - Computer Vision, and Intro to Computational Biology. This is an excellent companion to AP exam preparation and college entrance.
Grades: 6 - 12
15. Cloud Computing Pathway
In this set of classes, students will learn the state of the art Internet technologies that power the web. Your child will take classes including, Mobile Coding for Apps and Games, Python for AI,
Build Your Web, Cloud Computing for Web Apps. They will learn the essentials of cloud computing used by all large Internet systems such as Amazon, Google, Roblox, etc. By mastering cloud computing, students will gain a strong understanding of how data moves throughout the Internet to our personal computers and devices.
Grades: 9 - 12
Bonus. Game Creators Bootcamp Pathway
In our Game Creators Pathway designed for high school students, we have built a curriculum to train the next generation of PC, mobile, and console game designers. If your child enjoys playing games and wants to build their own, they will learn the basics in Accelerated Scratch before moving on to Python, JavaScript, and finally Unity, the game design platform that professionals use to create the majority of 2-D and some 3-D games sold by major game companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Your will child will create fun games, learn core coding skills, and develop computational thinking
Grades: 9 - 12
Enjoy coding bootcamps for kids and teens that set students up for success
That’s our list of the best coding bootcamps for kids of all ages. Remember that aside from our learning pathways, we have a wide variety of classes that can be tailored to your child’s schedule, either once a week or every day, depending on their needs and interests. Try one of our free trial coding classes, or consider embarking on a learning pathway. Your child will leave our classes with the confidence and technical skills to design their own games, apps, and computer programs that may power the devices of the future. Don’t hesitate, sign up today!
Written by Bryan Gordon, a Create & Learn instructor. After ten years of working as an English teacher, Bryan began studying Math and Computer Science over the past few years. Aside from writing and teaching, he likes cooking, gardening, playing guitar, and hanging out with his cats, Baguette and Wally.
