A ten week course · grades 3 to 5
Cones, string, index cards and a locked box. Your child never touches a screen, and you never buy a thing. I bring all of it.
What a lesson looks like
Why this class
My children are growing up around software that hides how it works. A phone sorts a list, picks a route, suggests a video, and never shows its reasoning. I want these kids to see the moving parts once, with their hands, before any of it feels like magic.
The part of computing I teach needs no screen. A nine year old can sort twenty cards on the floor and feel why one way takes longer. They can hold a yarn network and watch what breaks when one connection is cut.
I run my own tech business and I use this thinking every day. The children are not learning to code here. They are learning to take a problem apart, test it, and fix what was wrong.
I don't grade. I help while they work and I give them feedback.
Week 5 · twenty questions, built properly
The ten weeks
Week 01
Directions for a blindfolded partner.
Week 02
A cipher wheel they build and use.
Week 03
A yarn network across the room.
Week 04
Sorting a shop full of cards.
Week 05
Yes or no questions in a tree.
Week 06
A picture in fewer symbols.
Week 07
Mazes, and what a route costs.
Week 08
Suggesting from what someone enjoys.
Week 09
Testing rules for hidden advantages.
Week 10 · finale
An escape room using all nine.
The last week
On the final day the certificates are locked in a treasure box, and the only way in is to use what they learned in the first nine weeks. Nobody is given the answer. The class works it out together, and then they take the certificate home.
10For families
What you provide. Nothing. I buy and bring every cone, card, blindfold, ball of yarn and brass fastener. No supply list, no book, no device.
What comes home. A take-home page each week with an activity you can do together, and a short note telling you what the class did and why it matters. Nothing is required and nothing is handed back in.
Screens and privacy. Children use no devices. I use a display at the front for short videos and prompts, and that is the only screen in the room. Student names live on my own class list behind my login. They are not published and not shared.
Celebration. Every child gets a participation sticker every week. There is a weekly prize draw too, and it is a rotation, so every child gets a turn before the course ends.
| How long | 10 weeks, 55 minutes a week |
|---|---|
| Class size | About 25 children |
| You buy | Nothing |
| Dates | add your term dates |
| Where | add your co-op and room |
| Price | add your price |
For teachers and co-ops
The whole course is written down, so somebody who has never taught computer science can pick it up and run it. I built it that way because I needed a guest teacher myself.
add how a co-op gets in touch about running it, and whether there is a price
Signing up
Ask me anything before you decide. I would rather answer a question now than have a child in the wrong class for ten weeks.
point this button at your registration form, and add your email
Questions
No. Week 1 starts with giving directions to a partner. Children who have never thought about computers are not behind.
No. A page goes home each week with an activity you can do together if you want to. Nothing is collected and nothing is marked.
No. I help while they work and I give them feedback. The class is not ranked and children are not compared with each other.
Children work in small groups that change week to week, and the closing questions are answered by the whole class together.
Children use no devices. I use a display at the front for short videos and prompts. Everything they do is physical.
Each week stands on its own, so a missed week does not leave your child stranded. Week 10 draws on all of them, but it is a group escape room, not a test.
A small weekly prize, drawn from the class. It is a rotation, so every child gets a turn before the course ends. It is not a reward for being fastest or best.
Only a first name on my class list, behind my login, used to track whose turn it is for the prize. It is not published and not shared.
Yes. There is more in For teachers and co-ops.