the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Midland Park NJ, In the past few months, our society has changed in ways we never could have anticipated. New Jersey children have been home from school since mid-March, and with many extracurricular activities and summer camps cancelled many parents are hearing “I’m bored” on repeat with no productive solutions in sight. Luckily, Code Ninjas of Midland Park thinks they have found the solution parents are looking for – fun and innovative virtual summer camps that teach children to code using popular video games.
Owners Bob and Charlotte Lockwood, residents of Mahwah, are beginning to enroll children in their virtual summer camps. The Lockwoods immediately saw the value in continuing to teach kids throughout the summer while moving to online instruction. “A child can enjoy their Summer and have fun programming,” said Mr. Lockwood. “There are lots of opportunities through coding for children to express their creativity, by creating characters, stories, graphics, gaming, and many more things. That’s what is unique about us. Kids learn while they are having fun.”
The center will teach children between the ages of 7 and 14 a multitude of coding languages, such as Python, JavaScript, and LUA by having the kids create their own video games and modify popular games, like Minecraft and Roblox.
The Lockwoods are excited to offer their virtual courses, and like many business owners, they are eager to safely reopen their doors when the time is right. “We plan to re-open our physical facility in mid-July. We have many provisions in place to maintain the safety of our clients and staff. Our primary precautions are barriers, social distancing, cleaning, and procedures to minimize any and all contact. We have a large facility and we will be limiting our capacity to less than 50% for the near term,” says Mr. Lockwood.
In the meantime, the center continues to focus on virtualizing their curriculum and training their teachers – called Code Senseis – to utilize online webinar software to teach kids in real-time. Of the switch to virtual courses, Mr. Lockwood said, “We were presented with an immediate and drastic change. We had to quickly shift from in-person training between Senseis and Ninjas to remote communication. It required a complete change in the way that we scheduled education sessions, conducted sessions and followed-up. We had to train our staff on how to use on-line communication tools and how to manage children on these systems. Frankly, there were many bumps in the road, but our team persisted and were able to establish consistent, effective delivery of educational content over the internet.”
For more information about the Midland Park Code Ninjas location and their virtual summer camps, please visit codeninjas.com or call (201) 389-6684.
