I don't think anyone is advocating LEARN TO CODE STAY INDOORS. I work as in a Head Start Lab in what we call the STEM Lab. We have 250 3-5 year old children spe

I don't think anyone is advocating LEARN TO CODE STAY INDOORS. I work as in a Head Start Lab in what we call the STEM Lab. We have 250 3-5 year old children spend an hour in the lab. They do go on a HORRIBLE Literacy Program (BUT THERE ARE NO Developmentally Correct Literacy Programs I can find). Children spend about 10 minutes on the computer and I believe the ability for the kids to learn to look, listen and respond correctly is why we see a HUGE statistical advantage to children that come to my lab as opposed to the 750 children who do not have access to the lab. So that is it in terms of computers 10 minutes over a 60 minute time. We do teach coding principles by pattern recognition (big for literacy) and to problem solve. Heck we even do engineering with a problem, come up with a plan and then a creation. The kids always blow me away with what they come up with. You can teach the great parts of coding outside with your kids (I do) and then see where their interest lie. My daughter who is 9 wants a Robot she can program and we will go the Arduino route. My two older kids never touched a computer growing up and no real desire except to play a game or watch Netflix (They didn't become a part of our family till they were 11 and 15). My 4 year old LOVE playing programming board games (the Turtle Game? and Robo Rally) Teaching kids how to think is a lost art and we have many things we can use to help us. Learning to CODE is code to me to help children learn to think and to learn it early which is good to me. CODE for CODE sake is dumb.