Scratch: your child's first coding project, step by step

What Scratch is

Scratch is a visual programming language created by MIT. Instead of writing code, the child drags colored blocks that represent instructions: move a character, repeat an action or wait for a key to be pressed.

Your first animation in four steps

1. Choose a character. From the Scratch library, select the one your child likes best.
2. Make it move. Use the «move 10 steps» block inside «when green flag clicked».
3. Change its costume. With «next costume» and a pause, the character will look like it's walking.
4. Repeat. Wrap the blocks in «repeat 10 times». Done: they have their first animation.

What your child learns without realizing it

These four steps introduce real programming concepts:

• Events: something happens, like clicking the flag, and the program responds.
• Loops: an instruction repeats without having to write it several times.
• Sequences: the order of the blocks changes the result.

When to move on to the next step

When your child creates stories or games without being asked, they're ready for bigger challenges, like variables to keep score or conditions like «if on edge, bounce». It's a good time to check out the Scratch lab.