Join thousands of grownups who get articles on teaching kids to love coding.
Back to Articles

Why kids love coding with Bitsbox

Kids love coding with Bitsbox

Yes, you want your kids to have nutritional screen time and learn a relevant skill. But you also want them to have fun with the things you buy them.

Bitsbox combines all of the above! So, what exactly makes it so fun?

App customization

Flappy Bird. Candy Crush. Angry Birds. Kids love these apps. (Heck, everyone does.)

What if kids could customize these games to fit their own interests? Instead of keeping a bird flapping, you keep a princess floating above alligator-infested water. Instead of crushing candy, you smash sports balls. Instead of angry birds, you have happy gnomes!

Bitsbox encourages kids to make the apps their own by offering fun challenges while they code. For example: Can you turn the alpaca into a stack of pancakes?

Who wouldn't want to change parts of their favorite game into something totally unique to them?

Thousands of silly assets

The Bitsbox Library makes thousands of kid-friendly assets available at the tips of coders' fingers. I'm talking every fairytale background imaginable, dinosaur sounds from the Bitsbox team's own mouths, and a delicious variety of hot dog images.

Plus, we add new assets to the library every single month. So if you're looking for a rabbit hole to fall in…


The Bitsbox Library

The platform is easy to use

While Bitsbox apps are written in Javascript, it's not naked. We've created a kid-friendly version of the computer language in order to make it easier to use. This simplified API means that kids can write five lines of code that do the work of hundreds of lines of code. Our short 'n sweet library of commands was carefully designed to be easy to type and learn!

We're not perfect. That's why we're constantly improving our product based on the feedback from millions of coders. In fact, 20 months after Bitsbox started, we shifted our entire methodology and product form in response to coder (and grownup) feedback.

Have feedback of your own? Let us know!

The apps run on tablets and smartphones

Kids love using tablets and phones, and every program built on our site is designed to run on them. It takes a simple scan of the QR code, and *poof* the app is ready to play on your mobile device.


Coder scanning an app's QR code.

This use of the valuable tech in your household also makes kids feel grownup, and proud of what they've built.

Coding itself is hard

Didn't see that coming, did you?

Kids are inherently curious beings. One great thing about teaching kids to code is that they aren't going to master it the first, second, or even third time they try it. The challenge of building a perfect app takes work.

And kids love a challenge. The Bitsbox learning system introduces a new computer science concept every month. Getting increasingly more difficult concepts every month means that kids don't grow bored of Bitsbox, and always have a new tool in their belt to make an app more complex.

The possibilities are endless

There's no finish line when it comes to coding. There's always a way to revise your code, whether you're making it more efficient, more fun, or just plain different. Even the best coders in the world get a bug sometimes, so don't be afraid to try something new!

Well, enough Bitsbox horn-tooting. Let's build some apps!

Emma Erickson
About the author: Emma is a writer, T-Swift's #1 fan, and the Social Butterfly at Bitsbox. You can usually find her in the snack closet.
Join thousands of grownups who get articles on teaching kids to love coding.