I get this question every winter. “I have to start preparing for the summer, what activities and camps are available this year?” After about a decade of running my theCoderSchool locations, my answer is always the same: give them something real to build, hand them tools they’ve never touched, and let them mess it up a few times before they figure it out. Summer is the one stretch of the year when kids have enough open time to do that.
A nine-year-old writes their first line of code, and it doesn’t work. They try again. It still doesn’t work. On the fourth try, the screen does what they told it to do — and their face changes. That’s the moment. They just learned that the world isn’t magic. It’s built by people, out of small pieces they can understand. Once a kid figures that out, they don’t go back. They understand it takes trial and error to figure things out that work.
This is why summer matters so much. During the school year, our kids are sprinting — homework, practice, dinner, bed, repeat. There’s no room to go deep on anything. Summer gives them two or three weeks to obsess over a robot, a video game they’re designing, or an app they want to build for their little siblings or friends. That kind of focused, self-directed time is where real skills get built.
The piece most people miss is the entrepreneurship side. The best STEM programs aren’t only teaching code or circuits — they’re teaching kids how to spot a problem, build something to solve it, and explain to someone else why it matters. When a kid builds an app their family actually uses, or a game their siblings or friends beg to play, something shifts. They stop being someone who just uses technology and start being someone who makes it.
You don’t need anything fancy to start — follow what your kid already loves, and look for programs that have them building real things instead of filling out worksheets. At theCoderSchool, we take pride in summer camps where we always aim for fun, meaningful, and impactful projects. Our entire program is based on project-based teaching. Students also have presentation days on Fridays where they showcase what they have built throughout the week to their parents and peers — with a pizza party to cap it off. It doesn’t get better than that! Here’s to an incredible summer 2026.
Codee School.
The programs are designs for students interested in coding and STEM.
375 E. Main Street, Branford
To learn more: (203).747.8266 or email branford@thecoderschool.com
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