Code-it Hacks Kids: Parent Interview with Victoria Crowder

Watch our Parent interview with Victoria Crowder to hear firsthand what children experience and how they grow at Code-it Hacks Kids.

Transcript of the interview

What's unique about this camp that made you want to enroll your children there?

STEM is becoming very important, and I've always known the kids are interested in gaming and anything that involves the screen, and I'm always looking for more educational ways to get my kids involved or hide education in something that they think is fun. I found that they really did a good job of incorporating science and technology into fun applications, whether it was robotics or games that they created using things like Scratch. There were different things like wearable fashion or they made drones, and there were all sorts of different things. Each course was always building on it, so it was great. I just think it's an amazing opportunity for the kids to learn some of these skills that are going to help them later in life. Now with them implementing all of this coding into the curriculum at school, I feel that the kids have a huge jumpstart on the rest of them.

How were your children's first experiences at this camp?

For all three of my kids, they were instantly engaged, and they instantly liked it. Once they got their accounts set up and started to learn some of the language, they were surprised at how quickly they learned to work with the programs. Sometimes at the beginning, getting everything sorted out was a little bit of a learning curve. But it wasn't much of an adjustment for the kids to do this, and they loved it.

How and when did you know that this camp was the right fit for your children?

I found that Code-it Hacks was really, really helpful for us during the pandemic. My eldest daughter started the coding a few years ago, before the pandemic, and she liked it right away. My second daughter loved it and probably did three hours of coding a day for six to eight weeks, and we did back-to-back courses all the time. My youngest son would do the exact same thing later. My eldest daughter, who had done a lot of coding before it was online, was able to help him, so they were able to work together. Having that opportunity for the kids to work with an instructor in small groups and learn about something during that period when we weren't doing a lot made me feel that my kids were really lucky that they were able to learn so much about coding at that time.

Was there any change or noticeable personal growth you saw in your children after spending time at camp?

My second daughter absolutely took to it right away, and she couldn't get enough of it. She did Scratch, then she moved on to Python and other programs, and she just kept going through all the different games and courses. The program at that time was two or three hours, and then they would give them homework too, and she would be in her room coding for another two hours. She was so confident with it.

Was there any change or noticeable personal growth you saw in your children after spending time at camp?

I was amazed at how she was able to use the technology and did not need any help from me. The instructors were helpful and she would just learn so much every day. She wasn't frustrated at all. This was before the kids were doing online learning, so it was a huge opportunity for her later when we switched to online learning. She already knew how to Zoom and how to use all of that technology that she had learned from Code-it Hacks, which made everything that much easier for her when we moved into online learning.

How can a parent support their child to get the most out of this camp?

The biggest thing is to make sure everything is set up in advance so that your child can be best set up for success. Code-it Hacks sends you an email that explains the type of accounts you need to set up, what you need to do before, and how you need to prepare for what you need to bring to camp, whether it's online or in person. It is very important to make sure all your passwords are set, and all of the different programs are downloaded. If you do that in advance and have them all ready, it works out a lot better for everyone.

What do your children say about this camp?

There was certainly no forcing my kids to go to this camp. Whether it was in person or online, they were always very keen and happy to be doing whatever camp they were doing at Code-it Hacks. It certainly wasn't something I had to force them to do. It was something they loved.

Final thoughts?

These camps went beyond just playing games and the kids really learned information that they're going to use for their whole life. I can tell that they're using real math and science skills they were learning. They would even bring guest experts in sometimes, so the kids were able to understand how they can apply whatever information they learned into the real world. I was really impressed by the more professional approach Code-it Hacks takes to these camps. It's not child care. It's an experience for your child that they're going to learn from and use these skills for their whole life.