Develop Analytical Thinking Through Chess, Coding and More
Some thoughts on developing problem solving skills as well as more technical skills such as coding.
After a playdate with the usual suspects - Legos, car toys, and marble runs - wore thin and the aftermath of the toys remain scattered on the playroom floor, the pair of friends decided to play chess.
The two refused to play at first. But we negotiated.
I suggested that the two kids play us…. the moms! And for some reason, they seemed very excited about the prospect of beating us, eye-to-eye over a game of chess on the wooden chessboard. After teaming up - The Kids versus The Moms, they discussed strategy and SAID THEIR PLANNED MOVES OUT-LOUD. It was nice to hear that they gave thought into their moves. But they lost this round. Then after a short break, they continued to play each other… for hours.
If you want your kid to learn chess, here are some possible ways to start: buy a magnetic chessboard, enroll your kid in an online or in-person chess class or teach them yourself. We found that Chess Kid was a really good way to learn the basic moves and it is what spawned my son’s interest in chess. And Outschool is a good way to continue to have them learn strategies and play online chess on a regular basis.
Being 5-years-old is an interesting age. They are still child-like, yet, their interests expand and their curiosity peaks. And THEY BEGIN TO HAVE SOPHISTICATED ADULT-LIKE THOUGHTS. I don’t know what goes beyond the mind of a 5-year-old, so please excuse me for those of you who have older children. But I feel the pressure to expose him to the right things at the right time. Whenever I feel this way, I take a step back, and think about the important skills that can help him no matter what he eventually goes into. Those skills include literacy, math, coding, and problem solving.
So a class that promises to teach your kid about thinking is good, right? There’s a class he has been taking through Synthesis. It is an online strategy game, where kids team up to solve maps and puzzles. Although I can’t tell you exactly what he has learned from the series of classes, I can tell that his way of creating hypotheses and expressing his thoughts have become much more clear and he has become a more confident thinker. It’s only been a few months, so I can’t wait to see what other ways he might grow.
Another area I’ve been thinking about is coding. A mom asked me: “Is it important to teach kids coding this young?”
My immediate answer was “yes.”
Why wouldn’t you expose them to coding if you want programming to be part of their intuitive language and expression, in the same way music, art, and second languages are.
There seems to be a growing consensus that kids should learn to code as early as possible. This often means block-based coding for kids using physical robots and directions as well as iPad apps such as Tynker and Scratch Jr.
Lego WeDo 2.0 is a platform my son has been enjoying because it involves building a Lego structure as well as the ability to direct its actions via an iPad app for block coding. With block coding, kids can make Dash, a dashingly cute, blue robot dance, move, draw, and talk. The Dash system makes coding more exciting because the kids can see the direct result of their code by actually seeing the robot move.
Then when the kids are ready to graduate from iPad coding to laptop coding, you have Scratch 3.0 as well as mBot which hooks up to Makeblock software.
There are many more platforms and robotic systems available. Kids can write code in Python and other languages to make games and apps. More on that in future posts.
My point here is that there are a lot of coding options - no matter how old your kid is. The key is to get them interested and obsessed with the technology they are into, setting them up for a lifetime of thinking and creating… and perhaps programming.
It’s all trial-and-error. Sometimes classes don’t work out. Sometimes tutors don’t work out. Sometimes their interest peaks - and they become obsessed. Sometimes their interest fizzles out as quickly as it peaked. And sometimes they begin to teach themselves and then we can sit back and relax.