Vision of amaKhodi™

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The idea of amaKhodi™ was born about 2 years ago when an HOD of a school asked me about coding for the junior foundation. At that stage I didn’t fall for the idea of coding for the younger group because of various personal reasons. However, it stayed at the back of my mind until one day in 2018 when there was that “lightbulb moment” when I was while I was scrolling through Pinterest.

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One specific idea I saw there – which has nothing to do with coding – gave me the final add-on for my preschool curriculum and ended up as my “coding unplugged” program. It fitted with my idea that coding with tablets are still not needed until a later stage…

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My vision for amaKhodi™:

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Orion series:

3-7 years

Children learn the alphabet and how to build puzzles from a young age. We combined these skills and interests into our Orion series: 3x coding sets where the various shapes of puzzle pieces already lay the foundation of coding format and sequencing. (It can also be used for school readiness programs).

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Saturn series:

Mini set: 5-8 years – (Learner)

Although this curriculum is primarily written for the preschool year, children can use it for many years. This depends on the support and creativity of the parent/teacher to expand on the initial 60 lessons. 

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This box includes:

1. The junior coding box

2. 1x coding/building PVC mat

 

The amaKhodi Midi set is for homeschool use with more coding blocks available and is colour coded. This can also be used for the rest of the junior foundation as a follow on set after the Mini set.

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amaKhodi Maxi: 5-8 years (teacher' set)

This set is up-sized from the learners' sets to enable the teacher to explain the work on the board first.

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The lesson plans pave the way for the child from building and explaining, to sequencing, memory and problem solving until the final stage where they can follow instructions and code their way through obstacle courses. It all is done with wooden blocks, PVC mats and their magnetic coding blocks.

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This school set can be used across the curriculum as soft skills, visual and auditory discrimination etc are already included in the 60+ lessons. The pieces of the blocks have endless possibilities for the creative mind to engage the learners in the other subjects of each grade.

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In the end, children that were exposed to this simplistic way of coding, should have less trouble at an older age where they work with - and code - real robots.

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Schools can use this set only in the GrR group as a single year introduction to coding; but if the schools can use it in the rest of the junior foundation as well with the add-on packages of the Orion series or the Saturn Midi, it will only strengthen the skills learnt and make the recall of information that much easier. We want to show learners that coding is
not just about moving robots, but also having fun designing the field and the outcomes.
 

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Example:

One of the cleaning ladies at my one school asked what we are doing in class as she always sees a lot of tablets and robots around and exploring children. I explained it as follows:

me:         Have you ever given directions to anyone?

cleaner:   Yes, I have.

me:         By giving directions, You have given them a set of codes on how to drive from one point to another. in The 

              same way, we input the codes into the tablet that sends it to the robot to drive from one point to another. As if

              it were a text message (WhatsApp)

cleaner:   Is it the same as that thing in a car that give directions?

me:        Yes, the GPS has been programmed by someone. They gave a code to the GPS so that the GPS can tell you

              where to drive. We do the same. We give instructions to the robot that it can drive where we want it to go or we

              give codes to a picture to move in a dance or video.

Cleaner:  Oooh, that’s good. No wonder the children laugh a lot! They’re having fun moving their cars (robots) around

 

And this is our vision for amaKhodi™:

Children should be able to follow instructions, to give instructions and to have fun doing it all – and what better way to do it than with our amaKhodi™ boxes – whether individually at home or in a school environment!

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The school set includes:

1. A number of junior coding boxes

2. The teacher’s coding box

3. Printed manuals

4. 1 coding/building PVC mat

5.     Teacher’s resources – PVC mats/instructions to show in front of the class