Computer literacy is not a bonus subject in home-ed. It’s a foundation skill in the same way handwriting is: the thing that makes everything else easier to do. A learner who is comfortable navigating a computer, organising their own files, using a word processor properly, and building a basic spreadsheet is a learner who can do their school work more efficiently and enter the world after home-ed better prepared. The coding part builds on top of that.
You don’t need to know how to code to start teaching it. You mostly need to be willing to learn alongside them, which turns out to be one of the more useful modelling opportunities in home-ed. Learning alongside your student demonstrates that learning is ongoing, that adults don’t already know everything, and that figuring things out together, as you need the information, is a legitimate way to learn.
The computing basics worth covering
File management: how to create folders, how simple to remember file names make future-you grateful, how to find a file you saved three months ago. This sounds mundane until you’re trying to retrieve a completed assignment and it’s nowhere obvious.
Word processing: not just typing and saving, but using tracked changes, leaving comments, and formatting for different purposes. We use this as part of how we review and mark work together; it teaches the tool and the editing habit simultaneously.
Typing: the better they type, the faster and less frustrating everything else becomes. Ratatype is a reliable programme for building speed and accuracy, and it’s the kind of practice that compounds quickly.
Spreadsheets, presentation software, and how to source and properly attribute images are all worth covering as they come up rather than as standalone lessons because they tend to make more sense in context.
On coding: start offline
Before screens, spend some time on the logic. Code is instructions — precise, sequential instructions — and that idea can be explored without a computer at all.
The Lego maze is a good place to start: build a maze, place a character at one end, write a set of instructions to get them through it using simple directional code (R1, L2, F3). The person writing the code has to think in sequences; the person following it has to follow exactly and literally. This works across ages — with younger learners, you talk the commands aloud together, with older ones, they write the code and you execute it, including doing exactly what the code says even when it’s wrong, which is frequently funnier than expected and a surprisingly good lesson in precision.
Morse code is worth a lesson if you’re doing a unit with a wartime or communication angle. The Knowhow Book of Spycraft covers codes in a way that younger learners tend to find genuinely engaging.
Progression on screen
For younger learners, block coding platforms (Scratch and Code.org are the reliable starting points) let them drag and snap together commands without worrying about syntax. They’re building the logic of sequences and conditionals without the frustration of a misplaced semicolon causing everything to stop.
As they develop confidence, usually somewhere in late primary or early secondary, text-based languages become the next step. Python is a good first text language — readable, forgiving of small errors compared to others, and with enough flexibility to do interesting things fairly quickly. HTML and CSS alongside each other make sense for learners interested in building things they can see in a browser. Google’s Python Class is free, and Python’s Turtle graphics help build understanding.
Programmes we’ve used: aside from those mentioned above, CodaKid offers a free fourteen-day trial and covers game programming, Scratch, Minecraft coding, HTML and CSS — the engagement level is high and the challenge is genuine. VexCode VR is excellent for robotics alongside coding, with clearly identified learning outcomes per lesson. For older, independently working learners, Skillshare has a range of computer literacy and coding courses that can be slotted into a home-ed curriculum as self-directed study.
Nb. AI proficiency is quickly becoming as necessary as handwriting. Read about how we’re integrating AI into our homeschool, the rules we have for it’s usage and how prompt writing is the fundamental place to start.
