Have you ever thought about getting your kids into coding? It may sound impossible, but the truth is coding is like anything else in life: you don’t have to be an expert at it to learn something. In this day and age, many children are being exposed to multiple hours of screen time per day. Instead of just letting our kids consume technology, why not prepare them with the tools that would actually let them create something of their own?

Coding is so important in technology because it lets us understand how things work, and helps give real world examples of math. After watching the TED talks video with Mitch Resnick, founder of learnscratch.org,  an interactive website that lets kids code for free, I decided respond with my own personal experience.

Now although my mother never exposed me to javascript directly, she had exposed me to computers before even sending me off to iD Tech camps. At a very young age, she showed me the wonderful world of computers and taught me very basic Flash (ActionScript 2.0). I would make my own little animations, cursors with mouse trails of stars and pixie dust, and branching storybooks.  From the time I was 4 my mother showed me that anything I wanted to create could be a reality.

Having a mom who was computer-savvy gave me a big advantage growing up. I began to understand the way things worked easier and my school subjects seemed like nothing in comparison. But it wasn’t just Flash animation, it was everything on the web. My mom got me so comfortable with computers that by 8 I had already figured out how to pay for things online, and this was something I didn’t think was a big deal until I watched my 17 year old friend struggle to buy a train ticket online at amtrak.com.

We need to use the web and not let it use us. Technology has to become a two-way street or else we will never progress. There are a ton of apps now that let you create and make your own things, but when you give a child the ability to make his or her own app you open the door to a world of endless possibilities.