Hi Rachelle,

Thanks for your excellent question. Since programming is a language, you have to first learn the basics just as you would to learn to speak French or German. Start by looking at examples of coding snippets, so you can see how things are put together and just get an overall feel for coding. You should consider some coding for kids to grasp the bare basics before moving into beginner coding courses. We have an excellent article on resources you can tap into called Top Ideas for Teaching Kids to Code.

It’s best to start with one language and get to know it before adding others. Popular ones include C++ and Python. Fortunately, many coding languages share similarities, so once you learn one, it will become easier to pick up additional ones.

Learn the fundamentals inside and out. If you jump right to coding and don’t fully understand how different elements work together, you may run into a lot of errors with your code.

If possible, find a mentor who knows coding and can review your work and offer tips. It is possible to teach yourself to code by reading articles and viewing online videos and courses, but you’ll have to put in a lot of practice. I know you can do it, though! Check back and let us know how it’s going.

Great info, thank you! What about for someone for me, who is a stay-at-home mom that wants to create my own language learning program, but have no experience or education in developing, coding, or programming, etc. What advice could you give me?