I enrolled my kid in a Scratch course on the Codelearn platform, he's 9 years old and had never done anything like this before. He's interested but I get the feeling he's not getting much out of it. I need tips on how to motivate him and better understand what he's doing in class.
The best thing is really to sit beside him during a few lessons and see what he's doing - not to direct him, but to understand the flow and then ask him specific questions about the projects he builds, like "why did you put that block there?" or "what changes if you remove that?". Then find a personal project that he actually wants to do, a simple game or an animation about something he likes, and let him work with your support when he gets stuck - a lot of kids his age lose interest because they feel like they're just following boring exercises and don't see the final result. Codelearn has pretty intuitive blocks, so the worst thing is thinking he needs to learn everything theoretically before doing something fun.
Can he complete the projects he's given or does he get stuck somewhere? Because at 9 years old with Scratch, the cool part is him actually *making* something, not just watching. Try asking him to show you what he created and ask how it worked - like, "why did you put that block there?" It's really motivating when he sees that someone actually wants to understand. If he's really lost on the basics, maybe it's worth supplementing with some YouTube videos, because sometimes one platform's teaching style just doesn't click with a kid, you know how it is.
I think the issue might not be that he's not getting anything out of it - it's more likely that *you* aren't seeing the progress because Scratch is something he does on screen and it's hard to follow from the outside. A 9-year-old can genuinely get excited about this stuff, but if he feels like nobody cares about what he's made, he'll lose interest pretty fast.
Try this: after each class (or midweek), sit down with him and ask him to *explain* a block of code he created, even if it's something simple. It doesn't have to be about programming - he just tells you how he got the character to move or why he added a sound effect. You ask dumb questions on purpose ("but how does he know when to move?", "what if you did this instead of that?"). This keeps the conversation going, he feels like it matters, and he actually ends up understanding what he's doing better. It's like when someone explains something to you - that's when you really get it.
One thing other courses usually do: create a "personal project" for him separate from the classes. Something simple, a game or an animated drawing that he actually wants to make, not because someone told him to. It might take weeks, but he learns the blocks from the lessons and then applies them here. It completely changes the motivation when it's *his* thing.
Asking him what the hardest part of the class was instead of asking if he liked it gives you way more info than you'd think - because he'll explain his reasoning and then you'll find out whether he actually understood it or just clicked buttons until something worked. One practical thing nobody mentioned: have your son record a short video (just on his phone) explaining a project he made, like he's teaching a classmate - that forces him to organize his thoughts and you can clearly see what he actually picked up, plus it's really cool for a 9-year-old to do. It doesn't have to be perfect, just watch it later when you have time and write down specific questions to talk through with him about.
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