Not surprisingly, there is no shortage of resources to teach HTML online. What is a little harder to find are resources to teach kids HTML (and CSS) that are simple and appealing. Since it is a relatively easy thing to learn and a good way to get kids interested in programming in general, we’ve found some really great websites, books and a few free online games that are perfect for teaching kids will get them building websites in no time at all.
Best Websites to Help Teach Kids HTML
There are lots of great websites available that are perfect for beginners; the hard part is narrowing it down. Some of the following sites have really good video lessons and tutorials that are okay for kids (younger kids will probably need parental assistance going through the material on these sites).
- IPL2 for Kids has some easy and fun lessons to teach your kids HTML. This would be a good place to start as it talks about what HTML is and what are the rules, lots of stuff about different tags, how to link, CSS, and more.
- Learning HTML for Kids has 12 easy lessons designed specifically for kids ages 10 and up. It is a step by step tutorial that is very well done.
- HTML Goodies has another set of tutorials that is a great place to start. It goes into much more detail than Learning HTML for Kids but the information is laid out very clearly and this is a great resource.
- Another option is Code School. Code School is an online learning platform that teaches a variety of programming and web design skills. Courses range from beginner to advanced levels and you get to earn rewards and badges as you learn. The courses use screencasts and interactive exercises and each course has at least five levels.
- Code Pupil has an interactive HTML tutorial that is free and easy to do. You do a few lessons and then watch a video and are then asked to do another bit of code. It’s pretty good but if a younger child is doing this tutorial they will probably need a bit of adult guidance.
- Code Academy (not to be confused with Code School or Code Pupil) is a very cool site that lets you learn coding interactively along with other people. It is very easy to get going on it and it is super fun as well.
- W3Schools is a very good HTML resource. It’s simple it looks good and is very clear and easy to use.
HTML Books for Kids
There are a number of books that are aimed at kids to help them make websites, but the ones that we found are a bit old and out of date. If you do want to get an HTML book we think your best bet would be to get a general beginner HTML book that you can work through with your kids. There are lots of choices as far as HTML books go and a lot of them have great reviews, but you want to get something that is geared to the beginner where the writing style isn’t too confusing for kids. The books that we have gone through the reviews of and had a look at ourselves and think would be a great choice for kids are:
- The Dummies series are kind of perfect for kids. They are easy to read, fun to look at, and don’t take the subject too seriously. The Dummies series has a few HTML books to choose from the latest is Beginning HTML5 and CSS3 For Dummies. This one is probably a good bet. Just make sure you don’t get one of the more advanced HTML for Dummies books that they offer.
- HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites is a very nice book to look at. Everything is laid out in a simple and clear way that is a bit different than most programming books. Highly recommended.
- Learning Web Design: A Beginner’s Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics. This book is perhaps a little advanced for kids, but with some adult supervision it would be a great resource for most beginners.
Free HTML Games
We found a couple of online games around to help teach kids a bit of HTML. If you know of any others let us know and we would love to add them to our list.
- Super Markup Man is a simple 2D game designed to help you learn how to organize HTML “markup” without actually writing any programming code. The same developer also has an Andriod app called Super Easy HTML Practice Game.
- Code Combat has some options to learn HTML
Sources:
- StackOverflow
- Amazon
- Webmonkey