Let me answer plainly: parents do not need to program at all. Across 4,000 students, some of the children who went furthest had parents who were not comfortable with a computer.

Why you do not need the code

Your job is not to be the teacher. It is to be the reason they come back to it tomorrow — a completely different skill. Some very technical parents accidentally fix the code themselves, and the child never practises solving anything.

Five things you can do today

1. Ask "what could you make today?" not "which lesson did you do?"

The first invites them to show off something they are proud of. The second feels like a homework inspection. That small difference changes the mood of the whole house.

2. Let them teach you

This is the most powerful free tool there is. Explaining something to another person is the deepest form of learning. Say "I do not understand this at all — can you teach me?" and then genuinely listen. They will reorganise their own understanding as they talk.

3. Do not panic when things break

Broken programs are the most ordinary thing in this profession; professionals meet errors every day. If you look worried every time the screen turns red, your child learns that mistakes are frightening — the opposite of what we want.

4. Keep it regular, not long

Two 45-minute sessions a week beats one three-hour block on Saturday. The brain needs time to digest, and coding never becomes one big dreaded chore.

5. Praise the effort, not the result

"You sat with that for ages — well done" works better than "clever, you finished it". It ties pride to persistence rather than to outcomes alone.

What to avoid

  • Do not compare them to other children. Pace varies enormously and has little to do with ability.
  • Do not ask "when will you make a game?" in the first month. It creates pressure you did not intend.
  • Do not buy an expensive computer. Whatever is already at home is fine for the first two years.

If you would like to see how far a child starting from zero can get, read the stories of students now working professionally — many came from families with nobody in tech at all.