3 mistakes parents make when introducing coding to their kids (& how to avoid them)

When Ethan first joined Strive, he was already curious about coding. His parents had tried introducing it at home, but it hadn’t gone the way they hoped.

They bought him a coding workbook and signed him up for an online tutorial. At first, he was excited but after just a couple of hours, he lost interest. The lessons felt like schoolwork, the activities were boring and weren’t connected to anything he cared about, and everything was just confusing rules and syntax.

This is a pattern we’ve seen with many families. Parents want to give their kids a head start in coding, but a few common mistakes can quickly take the joy out of it:

1. Making it too academic

Kids already spend most of their day learning formulas and rules. When coding feels like more homework, the spark disappears fast.

2. Not linking coding to their interests

Children are far more motivated when projects reflect what they love. An F1 fan building a racing game, or a music lover coding a piano app, is learning with genuine excitement.

3. Starting with syntax before projects

When kids begin with “Hello World” and grammar-like coding rules, it rarely clicks. But when they start with projects, the rules make sense as tools to improve something they’ve already built.

When Ethan came to us, his first project was coding a football penalty shootout game - suddenly, coding wasn’t abstract anymore. From there, he picked up concepts like variables, loops, and logic almost without realizing it.

That’s why our philosophy is simple: start with joy. Put projects first, link coding to a child’s passions, and let the technical skills follow. It’s how kids not only learn to code, they choose to keep coding.