What Is Scratch and When Should Your Child
Move On to Python?

Your nine-year-old comes home and says a classmate has made his own game in Scratch, and now your child wants to try too. You open the Scratch website, see colourful blocks that look like puzzle pieces and type "what is Scratch" into Google. You'd like to know whether it's real programming or just a game.

Or it happens the other way round. Your eleven-year-old son has been making games in Scratch for two years and suddenly says it's for little kids and he wants to learn Python. You can't tell whether it's time to switch or still too early. In this article we explain what Scratch is and how to tell when your child is ready to move on to Python.

Scratch is a free programming language and online community where children create interactive stories, games and animations. In Scratch a child doesn't type code. Every command is a colourful block, and a program is a chain of these blocks that the child drags with the mouse and snaps together. Scratch was created at the MIT Media Lab for children aged 8 to 16, though people of all ages use it. For younger children there is a separate app, ScratchJr, made for ages 5 to 7. Scratch runs in a web browser, so you don't need to install anything to start. Children can share their projects on the Scratch website. Other users can open a shared project, look at its blocks and make their own version of it. In the same way, your child can open someone else's game and see how it works.

Yes. Scratch is built on the same basic ideas as languages in which code is typed, and the dinosaur quiz already uses two of them. The dinosaur always asks the question first and checks the answer after that, so the order of the blocks matters. And it adds a point only if the answer is right. In programming this is called a condition. The difference is in how the program is written. In a language like Python a child has to type every command without a single mistake. In Scratch the blocks are shaped so that they fit together only in ways that make sense. The creators of Scratch described this in a 2009 article. A child can't make a typo, so they can think only about how the quiz works: for example, why the dinosaur gives a hint after a right answer, or why the score goes up by two instead of one.

For a child of 8 to 10, Scratch is the better start. From about 12, Python can be the first language. Between 10 and 12, the answer depends on what your child has already done. A ten-year-old who is just starting will find Scratch easier. A ten-year-old with two years of Scratch behind them is in a different place: they already understand how a program is built and want to make bigger things. For them, the next step at this age can be 3D games in Roblox Studio, where children write part of the game by typing commands instead of using blocks. From 12, they can move on to Python. Sometimes an eleven-year-old says that Scratch is for little kids. The program itself was made for ages up to 16, so it isn't childish. But if your child says this after a year or two of projects, take it seriously. It may mean they are ready to move on, and the signs in the next section will help you check.

It's time to switch when your child's projects have outgrown the blocks. Besides your child's age, watch what happens on the screen:

One sign on its own doesn't mean much. Several signs together are a good reason to think about the next step. These signs are easiest to see for someone who looks at your child's projects every week. At Algonova, that's the teacher: they see your child's work in every lesson and will tell you when it's time to move on to Python. Three times a year we also send you a written report that shows what your child has mastered, where they are strongest and what still needs practice. So the decision to switch is based on several months of your child's work. On our Python Start course, the first lessons start with the same basic ideas your child already knows from Scratch, such as conditions. For a child who has done Scratch, much of this is familiar, so the new language doesn't feel like starting from zero.

If you can't tell whether your child is ready for Python, book a free 60-minute trial lesson, online and one-to-one. The teacher watches how your child copes with a task and then tells you what fits best right now: Scratch, Roblox or Python.

At Algonova a child can go from Scratch to Python one course at a time, without changing school. Each course is for its own age group, with 40 online lessons. The Scratch course is for ages 8 to 10: children start with simple animations, move on to games with several levels and in the last module build a project of their own. On the Roblox course for ages 10 to 12, children make their first 3D game in Roblox Studio and later a role-playing game with characters. On Python Start for ages 12 to 14, students write games and simulators and make programs that work with images. Teenagers of 14 to 17 can continue with Python on the Python Pro course. Your child has one lesson a week, either 90 minutes in a group of up to 10 children or 60 minutes one-to-one. Every lesson continues the one before, and the course is set up like a game with levels, so you don't need to coax your child into studying. In a group, children work in pairs and show each other their projects. The whole group also builds one big game, and every child makes their own part of it. A missed lesson isn't lost: the teacher goes through it with your child one-to-one at no extra cost. Before they teach their first class, our teachers pass three rounds of selection, and after that their work is reviewed every three months. If the score in your child's game won't go up and they can't work out why, the teacher patiently explains what's wrong and helps them finish the project. At an open lesson you can see for yourself how a class runs and talk to the teacher. When the course ends, your child keeps a portfolio of the projects they've made and gets an international-style certificate in English.

You don't have to decide on your own whether your child should stay with Scratch for now or move on. Book a free 60-minute trial lesson: your child spends an hour online, one-to-one with one of our teachers. After the lesson you receive a learning plan with the course that suits your child now.