This year, my 8th grader asked for a Computer Science elective. She was ready for a real world programming language after several years of Lego Robotics and other coding activities using Scratch. Thanks to her interest in Minecraft, we began looking for a way for her to begin to learn Java programming for beginners. Thanks to being a part of the Timberdoodle Blog Team, she got to take Java programming as an online self paced course.
Using workbooks for science is new this year, we have not studied science this way before. I’m not usually a fan of workbooks in homeschooling because there are so many other ways to learn than sitting at a desk.
Neurodivergent is an exciting new word meant to represent all of the different ways our brains are wired and an acceptance that having a brain that is wired differently is not “weird” or “defective” or “less” than anyone else, it’s just different. Differently wired brains can have various labels such as Autism, Dyslexia, ADHD, etc.
so I’m actively looking for programming opportunities and classes for him outside of the robotic competitions. When I heard about Eureka Champs Online Coding Classes it sounded like a great opportunity to build his skills.
One of the biggest things that attracted me to WriteShop was that, like the program we used last year, my student was in control of the topic of each writing assignment. This choice was important to me because my neurodivergent writer will not be motivated to write about something they aren’t interested in.
