Learning to code online at their own pace (ages 7–15): the Coding Lab guide

Many parents have seen the same scene: an exciting coding camp during the holidays, then nothing until the following summer. Coding, like a language or an instrument, is learned above all through regularity. That is why we built the Coding Lab: an online space where a child aged 7 to 15 makes a little progress every week, alone, at their own pace, and where parents can see what they are learning.

A clear path, starting from where the child is

The Lab is not a collection of unrelated mini-games: it is a learning path.

• From age 7, Smart Blocks. Blocks to snap together to guide Neo, our little robot, through the village of Alpenrose: 36 missions, from sequences to loops, conditions and on to their own game. Neo reads the instructions aloud, which helps children who still read slowly. Under every program, the child can see the same code in real Python.
• Scratch, for those who know it. A course in 4 levels and 16 workshops, with the blocks exactly as they look in Scratch.
• The bridges to Python. Two short paths, from Smart Blocks or from Scratch, to move from blocks to text without starting over.
• Real Python, around age 10. Four levels, from the first print() to object-oriented programming, with each lesson made of a short course, a question to check understanding, then an exercise checked automatically.
• Nine workshops to create. Drawing with a turtle, programming a virtual robot that reads its sensors, making games, building a website, doing maths through code, solving computing puzzles, understanding artificial intelligence, working with objects and files, outsmarting cyber traps.

A child who has already coded does not have to redo everything: each level has a placement test that opens the next one directly.

What a session looks like

Your child opens a step: it fills the screen, without distractions. First the lesson, short, with an example; then the mission at the top, the code on the left and the result on the right. They run their program: the turtle draws, the robot drives, the game starts, and an automatic check tells them straight away whether it worked. If they get stuck, increasingly precise hints help without giving the answer away. They can also watch their program run step by step, line by line, with the variables changing in their boxes.

One to two hours a week, in short sessions, is enough to progress. Nothing is lost from one week to the next.

What parents see

Each child has their own account and progress. In a dashboard you follow the steps passed, the days of activity and the next step, and you can receive a weekly summary by e-mail every Monday. At the end of a level, your child gets a certificate to print. If you have two children, you follow both in the same dashboard.

Safe by design

The Lab runs in the browser: nothing to install, a computer or tablet is enough. Your child's Python code runs on their device, cut off from the internet. There are no ads and no chat with strangers: only our team talks with your child, and replies go to the parent. Data is processed under Swiss data protection law.

In four languages

The whole Lab exists in French, German, English and Italian, and Neo speaks all four. You can switch language at any time without losing progress: handy for bilingual families and children schooled in another language.

How much it costs

The Coding Lab costs CHF 49 per month (12-month commitment) or CHF 490 per year, i.e. two months free. For two children, the second gets a 40% discount: CHF 79 per month or CHF 790 per year. For children who take our Solo or Duo classes with a teacher, the Lab is included. You can try a mission without creating an account, right on the page.

Frequently asked questions

My child does not like maths: is it for them? Yes. You can code without loving maths: Smart Blocks, Scratch and games are mostly about logic, stories and creativity. Often it is precisely by programming a game or a drawing that maths becomes concrete.

What about screen time? It is a screen that makes children create, not consume: short sessions with a clear goal. See screen time: consuming or creating.

Where to start? With Smart Blocks between 7 and 10; with Python from 10 or 11, or through the bridge if the child knows Scratch. See at what age to start programming.