Before you pick a course
AI coding vs regular coding
A regular coding class starts with a blank file and a language’s syntax. An AI coding class starts with your child describing what they want in plain English, then reading, testing and fixing what the tool produced. The tools are different. The thinking underneath is the same, and we teach both at once.
Regular coding classAI coding class
How you start
RegularA blank file. You learn a language's syntax first, then type the logic line by line.
AI codingYou describe what you want in plain English. The tool scaffolds a running project you then read, test, and shape.
Time to a first real app
RegularSlow. Days or weeks before a beginner has something non-trivial that works.
AI codingFast. A working, deployed prototype in an afternoon, though the final 30% (edge cases, bugs) still slows right down.
The skills it builds
RegularSyntax, algorithms, data structures, and a mental model of how code runs.
AI codingWriting precise specs, reading and reviewing code, product judgement, and directing an AI agent, on top of that same mental model.
Debugging
RegularRead the error, form a hypothesis, reason about state. Slow, but it builds deep understanding.
AI codingAsk the AI to fix it. Fast when it works, but you can 'fix' code you don't understand, and AI produces confident, plausible-but-wrong answers.
What a beginner ships in week one
RegularA small script or console program: a calculator, a text game.
AI codingA deployed app with a real interface, at a URL they can send to anyone. Far more motivating.
The ceiling
RegularCapped by what the learner knows, but that knowledge is durable and transfers everywhere.
AI codingCapped by hallucinated or insecure output and the '70% problem': the last stretch needs genuine understanding to finish.
Why understanding still matters
AI writes code that looks right and is sometimes badly wrong. A Stanford study found developers with an AI assistant wrote less secure code while feeling more confident about it. So the skill we teach is directing the tool and then checking its work: read it, test it, fix it, explain it.
What that looks like in the trial
Every course runs on one rule, the explain-back: each week a student walks the coach through a piece of their own code, out loud. In the trial session your child builds with the tool, then explains what they built. That is what the coach is watching for, and it is what you will hear about afterwards.
