Offenbach am Main · Children 6 to 12 · Live online
Coding classes for kids in Offenbach am Main
Hessen is one of the six Länder where no pupil has to take Informatik, and the Gesellschaft für Informatik knows of no binding plan to change that. For an Offenbach child who wants to know how games and apps are made, the answer will not come from the timetable. This page explains what Hessen schools do offer, how a child of 6 to 12 can start in our live English classes, two free contests this school year, and a project on the weather station in Offenbach that seems to record a frost in August.
Teaching children live since 2020 · 10,000+ students worldwide · a regular mentor, in English
In short
Modern Age Coders teaches coding classes for kids in Offenbach am Main as live video lessons in English, open to every child from 6 to 12. The youngest start with puzzles and Scratch; from about 9, children type real Python and later explore Offenbach weather data. A regular mentor matches each child's pace and accent, either privately or among fifteen to twenty children of the same age.
Good first courses
Which coding course should an Offenbach child start with?
Three courses that between them suit nearly every child from 6 to 12.
Not as a required subject at any age. Hessen leaves Informatik to electives, and none of them starts before grade 7.
No compulsory Informatik
The Gesellschaft für Informatik, in its Informatik-Monitor 2026/27, states for Hessen that across all school types there is no compulsory Informatik teaching. Nationally it lists Hessen among six Länder without Informatik that is binding for all pupils, and among three where no binding plans to introduce it are known.
So an Offenbach child can go from grade 1 to the end of secondary school without ever being required to write a line of code.
What is offered
A Gymnasium may run Informatik inside its Wahlunterricht, one hour a week, starting in grade 7. In the Haupt- and Realschule tracks, schools can set up Informatik as a Wahlpflicht subject, though the monitor notes there is no curriculum of its own for those tracks.
Whether your child gets any of this depends on the school, and nothing at all is planned for Grundschule, grades 1 to 4.
Computing for an Offenbach child, by grade (Hessen rules)
Grades
At school
What our classes can add
1 to 4
Grundschule, no Informatik
Puzzles, patterns, Scratch stories and games
5 and 6
No compulsory Informatik
Typed Python, games and first data projects
From 7
Gymnasium: one elective lesson a week, if offered
Python projects and contest practice
Other tracks
Wahlpflicht Informatik possible, school by school
A steady course that does not depend on the school
Read on 2 November 2026: the Hessen entry and the national summary of the GI Informatik-Monitor 2026/27, and the KMK page on the Primarbereich. We wrote the last column ourselves. Destatis counts Offenbach am Main 132,746 and Hessen 6,280,793 at 31 December 2024. Families in Mühlheim am Main, Heusenstamm, Obertshausen and Neu-Isenburg live under the same Hessen rules.
We do not replace school and we do not set marks. What we can give an Offenbach child is what the timetable leaves out: a regular hour, twice a week, with a mentor who teaches them to break a problem into steps, try an idea and find their own mistake.
A real Offenbach project
When does Offenbach get its first frost of the autumn?
The Deutscher Wetterdienst runs a weather station in Offenbach, the Offenbach-Wetterpark, and publishes its daily readings as open data. The coldest temperature of every night since 2005 is in the file, and finding the first frost of each autumn makes a perfect first data project, with a trap in it.
The data
Station 07341, Offenbach-Wetterpark, is part of the DWD Climate Data Center's daily climate records, which the DWD releases as open data under CC BY 4.0. We downloaded the historical and recent files on 4 November 2026: 7,779 days from 15 July 2005 to 2 November 2026.
For each day we keep the date and the lowest air temperature of the day, in offenbach_nights.csv. A frost, for this project, is a day whose lowest temperature is below 0 degrees.
The question
In each year, from August onwards, on which date did the temperature first drop below zero? Version 1 goes through the days in order and writes down the first frosty date it finds for each year, then stops looking for that year.
It is short enough for a ten year old to read line by line.
Version 1: the first frost in each yearPython
import csv
first = {}
with open("offenbach_nights.csv", encoding="utf-8") as f:
for row in csv.DictReader(f):
year, month = row["date"][:4], int(row["date"][5:7])
if month >= 8 and float(row["min_temp"]) < 0 and year not in first:
first[year] = row["date"]
for year in sorted(first):
print(year, first[year])
It prints one line per year, starting 2005 2005-08-20 and ending 2026 2026-11-02.
A frost in Offenbach on 20 August 2005? Children spot this at once. Opening the file shows the reason: on that day the minimum temperature is written as -999. The weather service uses -999 to mean "no reading", and -999 is certainly below zero, so the program believed it. In the whole file there are 20 such days, all in 2005, the year the station began.
Version 2 skips the -999 days before anything else. Then it answers a second question: which autumn had the earliest first frost, and which the latest? Here a new trap waits. Sorting the full dates would just put 2005 first and 2026 last. To compare the autumns we sort by month and day only, the part of the date after the year.
Version 2: skip -999, then compare by month and dayPython
import csv
first = {}
with open("offenbach_nights.csv", encoding="utf-8") as f:
for row in csv.DictReader(f):
year, month = row["date"][:4], int(row["date"][5:7])
temp = float(row["min_temp"])
if temp == -999:
continue
if month >= 8 and temp < 0 and year not in first:
first[year] = row["date"]
print("Autumns with a frost:", len(first))
by_day = sorted(first.values(), key=lambda d: d[5:])
print("Earliest first frost:", by_day[0])
print("Latest first frost:", by_day[-1])
print("This autumn:", first.get("2026"))
It prints Autumns with a frost: 22, Earliest first frost: 2015-10-12, Latest first frost: 2014-11-21 and This autumn: 2026-11-02.
The earliest first frost came on 12 October 2015, the latest on 21 November 2014, more than five weeks apart. And this autumn the first frost was on Monday 2 November 2026, two days before we downloaded the file. Is that early or late? Across the 20 autumns from 2006 to 2025, the two middle dates are both 31 October, so 2026 is close to an ordinary year.
First frost of the autumn in Offenbach, selected years (our calculation)
Year
First frost
Notes
2005
18 November 2005
After removing -999; 16 and 17 November 2005 are missing
2014
21 November 2014
Latest in the record
2015
12 October 2015
Earliest in the record
2020
5 November 2020
2023
16 October 2023
2025
17 November 2025
2026
2 November 2026
This autumn
Data: Deutscher Wetterdienst, Climate Data Center, daily climate data, station 07341 Offenbach-Wetterpark, licence CC BY 4.0, downloaded 4 November 2026. A frost here means a daily minimum air temperature below 0 degrees. First frost dates are our own calculation; the first came in October in 12 autumns and in November in 10, from 2005 to 2026. Twenty-two years is too short to say anything about climate trends, so we do not.
Ages 6 to 8, no screen. Each morning this week, look outside: frost on cars or grass, yes or no? Keep a tally on the fridge. Ask a grown-up what you should write on a morning you forget to look.
Ages 8 to 10, Scratch. Make a list of ten night temperatures and put -999 in one of them. Make the cat say the coldest night. Then teach the cat to ignore -999.
Ages 10 to 12, Python. Run Version 1, find the 2005 mistake yourself in the CSV, and add the skip line before you look at Version 2.
Going further. Change Version 2 to find the last frost of each spring instead. Which month should the program look in?
Getting started
How does a child of 6 start learning to code?
Gently, and by playing. This is how the first weeks usually go for our youngest Offenbach learners.
The free first class. One friendly puzzle and one tiny program. From that hour the mentor gets a feel for your child's thinking and English, and proposes an age group.
Weeks 1 and 2: order. Picture puzzles where steps must go in the right order, then a Scratch character that walks, waves and speaks. Nothing needs typing.
Weeks 3 and 4: repeat. Making something happen again and again with a loop, instead of dragging the same block ten times. Children feel clever here, and they are right.
From week 5 until week 8: react. A first game: press a key, the character jumps; touch the edge, it says "ouch". The child decides the story.
After that. Scores, levels and sounds, and for confident readers of about 9, the move to typed Python.
In English, at their pace
Every class is live and in English only. Mentors use short sentences, show before they explain and slow down when needed. Younger Offenbach children pick up the handful of words they need surprisingly fast.
One mentor
The mentors are based in India and teach over live video. Your child keeps the same mentor every week, which matters a great deal at six: a familiar face makes it safe to try and to get things wrong.
Short and lively
Lessons are an hour, with something new to do every few minutes. The child holds the mouse; the mentor never takes over the screen to do it for them.
Free contests
Which free contests suit an Offenbach primary pupil?
Two, both entered through the school. We are not connected with either.
Two free school contests for 2026/27
Contest
Who
When
Informatik-Biber
Grades 3 to 13; primary pupils solve 9 tasks in 30 minutes
9 to 20 November 2026
Känguru der Mathematik
Maths contest entered by the school
8 April 2027; registration 1 December 2026 to 31 January 2027
Sources: Bundesweite Informatikwettbewerbe, Informatik-Biber 2026; Känguru der Mathematik, 2027 dates (held in April this time, since the normal March Thursday would land right before Easter holidays nearly everywhere); read on 2 November 2026.
The Biber needs no coding at all, only careful thinking, so it is a good first contest even for a child who has never programmed. We never copy either contest's questions; our mentors invent their own puzzles in a similar style, and if your child's school takes part, the class teacher will know.
Class times
When are the classes in Offenbach time?
After school and at weekends, chosen when you book. These examples show the time on the mentor's side.
Example Offenbach times and the time in India
Offenbach
India, winter months
India, from 28 March 2027
Wednesday 15:20
19:50
18:50
Thursday 16:50
21:20
20:20
Saturday 10:50
15:20
14:20
Offenbach keeps German legal time under the Einheitenzeitgesetz: MEZ, UTC+1, in winter and MESZ, UTC+2, in summer. This year's change back was on 25 October 2026 and the change forward is on 28 March 2027. Indian clocks sit at UTC+5:30 all year round, which makes the gap 4 h 30 in winter and 3 h 30 in summer. The times are examples, not fixed batches.
When Hessen schools are closed in 2026/27
Ferien
From and to
Herbstferien (already over)
5 to 17 October 2026
Weihnachtsferien
23 December 2026 to 12 January 2027
Osterferien
22 March to 2 April 2027
Sommerferien
28 June to 6 August 2027
Dates are the first and last days off in the Hessen row of the KMK holiday list for 2026/2027 (dated 9 October 2025). Our classes run through the holidays; families can pause whenever they travel.
Milestones
How will we show you what your child has learned?
We describe progress with five stages we wrote ourselves. They decide which batch fits and what we tell you, and have nothing to do with school grades.
Five stages, 6 to 12 (ours)
Stage
Typical age
Your child can
1. In order
6 to 7
Arrange a few picture cards into a working sequence, then try it on a Scratch sprite
2. Again
7 to 8
Use a loop so the computer repeats something
3. If
8 to 9
Make a game react differently to different keys
4. Typed
9 to 11
Write a few lines of Python and read the result
5. Careful
10 to 12
Spot a fake value in real data and handle it before answering
For parents
Stage 5 is the frost project. A child who asks "is that number real?" has learned something many adults have not.
Our notes to you say what your child made and could talk through, never how long they sat at a screen.
For children
If the computer finds a frost in August, do not believe it straight away. Look at the data.
To compare days from different years, compare the month and day, not the year.
More for children
Nine more courses for Offenbach children
All of them live, all in English, all with one mentor who stays, solo or with children of the same age.
I
Blocks and games
Ages 6 to 14
CKO / GAM / 01
Scratch for kids
Three to four months of Scratch, finishing with games they designed.
A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.
by Krish
Fees
Fees for Offenbach families
The fee is monthly, for eight live classes. On this page it is given in euro, converted at the European Central Bank reference rate; the charge is made in US dollars and your bank converts it, so the statement can show a slightly different euro amount.
"The one step solution for my son. Modern Age Coders make learning coding so simple that kids love it. The teachers explain complex concepts clearly with practical exercises and interactive content."
Ria Mukherjee
Parent
★★★★★
"Modern Age Coders has been a game-changer for me. I struggled to grasp IT concepts and coding before joining, but their classes transformed everything. I can now confidently write complex programs with ease."
Samriddha Mondal
Student
★★★★★
"One of the most wonderful education centres out there. Education is not limited to school syllabus but focuses on skill development."
Vansh Agarwal
Student
★★★★★
"My child Dhairya is really enjoying the Modern Age Coders classes. This is his first online class and he eagerly looks forward to it. I can already see his improvement, and the teachers are very cooperative."
Sonam Oswal
Parent of Dhairya
★★★★★
"Modern Age Coders have wonderful teachers who teach in a clear, easy and practical way. The teacher boosts students' confidence and inspires them to learn without hesitation."
Sonu Goyal
Parent
★★★★★
"I highly recommend this computer coding class! The teachers are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about coding."
Ritu Kedia
Parent
Offenbach parents ask
Coding classes for kids in Offenbach am Main: parents' questions
Are the classes in German?
No, they are always in English, and always live. Our mentors talk to young children in short, simple sentences, wait for an answer, and adapt to how each child speaks. Most of the lesson is visible on the screen, which helps a child whose English is still new.
Do Hessen schools teach Informatik?
Not as a compulsory subject. The Gesellschaft für Informatik reports no compulsory Informatik across school types in Hessen. A Gymnasium may offer it as a one-hour elective from grade 7, and other tracks may set it up as a Wahlpflicht subject.
Is my child too young at 6?
Rarely. At six, children sort picture steps and snap Scratch blocks together; reading and typing are not needed yet. One free trial lesson tells you and the mentor which group suits.
When are the classes in Offenbach time?
Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays. Many Offenbach families choose an afternoon after school or a Saturday.
Where are the teachers?
They teach from India on a live video call. A Wednesday 15:20 lesson in Offenbach is 19:50 on the mentor's clock during the German winter.
How large is a batch?
Batches gather fifteen to twenty children close in age. Families who prefer can book private lessons instead: two a week, your child and the mentor only.
Can my child enter the Informatik-Biber?
Yes, through a school that has signed up. It costs nothing, asks no coding knowledge and starts at grade 3; at primary level children get nine puzzles and half an hour. The 2026 contest weeks are 9 to 20 November.
What do we need at home?
A laptop or computer with a mouse, a steady internet connection and a quiet spot. A parent nearby helps in the first lessons with younger children.
What does it cost?
There is one fee per month. We show it in euro using the ECB reference rate, the card is charged in US dollars, and your bank does the exchange, so the euro figure on your statement may be a touch different. Your child's first lesson is free.
Will my child use AI chatbots?
No. Chatbot accounts are for older users under their own terms. Our young learners explore how AI works through games and examples we build with them, and every program they make is their own.
The first class is a friendly puzzle and a tiny first program. The mentor watches how your child approaches it and how much English they follow, then suggests a course and an age group.
Parents who like to read up first can start with how we teach, then look through all courses.
Every lesson comes live from a mentor in India and is spoken in English alone. WhatsApp messages in English get the fastest answer.
Want a class sooner? Book a priority demo
A priority demo is a full class of about 45 to 60 minutes. After the class the mentor sends a written skill report and a personal learning roadmap on WhatsApp. If you enrol, the demo fee is adjusted against your first month's fee. Share your demo Order ID with us on WhatsApp and we take it off.
