Most Solingen parents ask the same thing first: is a coding class just more time in front of a screen? It is a fair question, and the answer depends on what the child is doing with the screen. This page explains the difference, sets out what a child learns term by term, gives the NRW school facts, lists two maths contests in 2027, and shows a project on 30 Solingen winters in which a child discovers that two winters with the same number of snow days deserve the same place.
Live online since 2020 · 10,000+ students worldwide · children make things, in English, with one mentor
In short
Modern Age Coders runs coding classes for kids in Solingen as live online lessons held in English, for ages 6 to 12; children build their own games and programs instead of watching. They begin with Scratch, move to Python and AI for Kids around nine, and keep one mentor in India who matches their pace and accent. Children join a class of fifteen to twenty peers or learn one to one. NRW schools teach Informatik from grade 5.
First courses
Which first course suits a Solingen child?
A short Scratch course to start, a games course for children who already love games, and Python for a child ready to type.
Is a coding class just more screen time for my child?
It uses a screen, but it is the opposite of scrolling. The difference is who is in charge of what happens next.
Making, not watching
In a game or a video, someone else has decided everything. In a coding class, your child decides what the character does, writes the rules and fixes them when they do not work.
Thinking away from the screen
Mentors often ask a child to plan on paper first: draw the maze, list the steps, guess the result. A good part of each lesson is talking and thinking, not clicking.
Short and finished
A lesson lasts an hour and ends with something your child made and can show you. There is no endless feed and nothing that pulls them back in.
Explain. The mentor shows one small idea, such as making a sprite repeat a dance.
Predict. Before running anything, your child says what they think will happen.
Build. Your child makes their own version, with their own character and rules.
Break and fix. Something goes wrong on purpose, and your child finds out why.
Show. At the end, your child explains what they built in their own words.
Term by term
What does a Solingen child learn in the first year?
An outline of a first year at two classes a week, our own plan. Every child moves at their own speed inside it.
A first year of coding, by term (our plan)
Term
Ages 6 to 8
Ages 9 to 12
Autumn
Scratch: moving, talking, costumes
Scratch games with scores and levels
Winter
Loops and simple events
First Python: printing, input, turtle drawing
Spring
Small games with choices
Python loops, lists and number games
Summer
A game of their own to show the family
A data project, such as ranking snowy winters
Children aged six to eight stay in Scratch longer because they are still learning to read and type. From nine, most children are ready to type short programs, and they are proud of writing the same language that grown-up programmers use.
NRW schools
When does Informatik start at Solingen schools?
At grade 5. Before that, coding is something a child does at home or in a club. Checked against the GI monitor and the KMK on 2 November 2026.
Primary years
Solingen children go to Grundschule for four years, from grade 1 to grade 4, as in almost every Land. NRW has no compulsory Informatik subject in those years.
So the ages six to nine, when children pick up new ways of thinking most easily, are left to families.
Grades 5 and 6
The Informatik-Monitor 2026/27 of the Gesellschaft für Informatik reports that Informatik is a compulsory subject in grades 5 and 6 at all general school types in North Rhine-Westphalia.
A child who arrives in grade 5 already able to plan steps and use a loop has a head start. Our classes run alongside school and give no marks; the school subject is the one that counts.
Sources: Gesellschaft für Informatik, Informatik-Monitor 2026/27 (NRW page); KMK, Primarbereich and Ferienkalender 2026/27. NRW holidays this school year: Herbstferien to 31 October 2026, Weihnachtsferien 23 December 2026 to 6 January 2027, Osterferien 22 March to 3 April 2027, Sommerferien 19 July to 31 August 2027. We are independent of the GI, the KMK and the NRW ministry.
In English
Will my child understand a coding class in English?
Every class is live and taught in English only, and young children usually settle in within a few lessons.
English, plainly said
We do not teach in German. Mentors are based in India and teach over live video, in English, and we say so here rather than after a trial.
Fitted to your child
Mentors use short sentences, repeat key words, point at the screen and wait for an answer. They get used to your child's accent, and a German word in an answer is fine.
A small vocabulary
Move, turn, repeat, if, score, sprite. Children need only a handful of words to start building, and they learn them by using them.
Your child sees one mentor throughout the course, so the mentor learns what makes them laugh, what they find hard, and when they need an easy win before a harder step.
A real Solingen project
Which was Solingen's snowiest winter? Ranking 30 winters fairly
The Deutscher Wetterdienst measures how deep the snow lies each morning at Solingen-Hohenscheid. Our older children use 30 winters of it to learn something every ranking needs: a rule for ties.
The data
Station 4741, Solingen-Hohenscheid, has recorded daily rain and snow depth for decades. The DWD Climate Data Center publishes it under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 licence; we downloaded the file on 3 November 2026.
We keep December, January and February of each winter from 1990/91 to 2024/25, but only winters where at least 90 of those days have a snow reading. That leaves 30 winters, saved as hohenscheid_winters.csv.
The question
On how many mornings each winter was there at least 1 centimetre of snow on the ground? That rule is ours, decided before counting. Then: put the winters in order, from snowiest to least snowy.
Sorting is easy. Giving each winter its place turns out to be the interesting part.
Version 1: sort and numberPython
import csv
snow_days = {}
with open("hohenscheid_winters.csv", encoding="utf-8") as f:
for row in csv.DictReader(f):
year, month = int(row["date"][:4]), int(row["date"][5:7])
winter = f"{year}/{year + 1}" if month == 12 else f"{year - 1}/{year}"
if winter not in snow_days:
snow_days[winter] = 0
if int(row["snow_cm"]) >= 1:
snow_days[winter] += 1
order = sorted(snow_days, key=snow_days.get, reverse=True)
print("Winters:", len(order))
for place, winter in enumerate(order[:8], start=1):
print(place, winter, snow_days[winter], "days")
It prints Winters: 30, then eight lines from 1 2009/2010 49 days to 7 1998/1999 18 days and 8 2001/2002 18 days.
Look at places 7 and 8: both winters had exactly 18 snow days. Which one is seventh? The program chose one, but only because of the order the winters happened to arrive in. A ten year old spots that this is not fair.
Version 2: equal snow, equal placePython
def place_of(winter):
more = [w for w in snow_days if snow_days[w] > snow_days[winter]]
return len(more) + 1
print("Fair places:")
for winter in order[:8]:
print(place_of(winter), winter, snow_days[winter], "days")
print("No snow at all:", [w for w in order if snow_days[w] == 0])
print("Last place:", place_of(order[-1]), [w for w in order if place_of(w) == place_of(order[-1])])
Run after Version 1. It prints the same eight winters with 7 1998/1999 18 days and 7 2001/2002 18 days, then No snow at all: [] and Last place: 29 ['2019/2020', '2021/2022'].
The fair rule is the one sports use: your place is one more than the number of winters with more snow than yours. Both 18-day winters are seventh, and the next one is ninth. At the bottom, two winters had just one snow day each and share 29th place, so there is no 30th. Every one of the 30 winters had at least one snowy morning.
The eight snowiest Solingen winters, December to February (our calculation)
Place
Winter
Snow days
1
2009/2010
49
2
2010/2011
37
3
2012/2013
28
4
1990/1991
24
5
2004/2005
23
6
1995/1996
20
7
1998/1999
18
7
2001/2002
18
Data: Deutscher Wetterdienst, Climate Data Center, daily precipitation and snow depth, station 4741 Solingen-Hohenscheid, licence CC BY 4.0, downloaded 3 November 2026. The 1 centimetre rule, the 90-day completeness rule and the ranking are ours. Winters 2002/03, 2006/07, 2008/09 and 2011/12 have too many missing readings and are left out; there is no record for 2003/04, and the station moved site in 2004.
Ages 6 to 8, no screen. Line up five toys by height. Two are exactly the same height. Who stands where?
Ages 8 to 10, Scratch. Make a list of five scores with two the same, and a script that says each score's place.
Ages 10 to 12, Python. Change the snow rule to at least 5 centimetres. Does 2009/2010 stay first?
Going further. Print the whole ranking and find every pair of winters that share a place.
Maths contests
Which maths contests can a Solingen primary child try in 2027?
Two, both run through schools. Puzzles in maths and in coding grow the same habit: reading carefully and checking an answer.
Dates as published by the organisers
Contest
Key dates
Format for young pupils
Pangea-Mathematikwettbewerb
Registration 1 October 2026 to 17 February 2027; first round 23 February to 3 March 2027
15 tasks in grades 3 and 4, otherwise 20, in 45 to 60 minutes
Känguru der Mathematik
8 April 2027
24 problems in 75 minutes in grades 3 to 6
The Känguru reached more than 920,000 pupils from over 13,000 schools in 2026. Schools register their pupils for both contests, so ask your child's teacher. We do not reproduce either contest's questions; in class we use puzzles we write ourselves and label as ours, and we are not connected to either organiser.
Times
When are coding classes for Solingen children?
After school or at the weekend, chosen by you. Solingen afternoons are evenings for the mentors in India.
A few Solingen slots on an Indian clock
Solingen
India, winter months
India, from 28 March 2027
15:20
19:50
18:50
17:20
21:50
20:50
Saturday 11:00
15:30
14:30
Sunday 10:30
15:00
14:00
Germany switched to MEZ (UTC+1) on 25 October 2026 and returns to MESZ (UTC+2) on 28 March 2027, following the Einheitenzeitgesetz. India stays on UTC+5:30 all year, which puts the mentor four and a half hours ahead this winter and three and a half from late March. Slots are illustrations, not set batches.
Children in Wuppertal, Remscheid, Haan, Leichlingen or Langenfeld can join the same classes. Times on the booking page appear in your own clock.
Milestones
What can a Solingen child do at each stage?
Five stages we use to place children and to write home about progress.
Five stages for young coders (ours)
Stage
Around age
Your child can
1. Plan
6 to 7
Describe the steps of a game before building it
2. Repeat
7 to 9
Make a sprite repeat an action with a loop
3. Choose
8 to 10
Make a game behave differently when something happens
4. Type
9 to 11
Write and fix short Python programs
5. Rank
10 to 12
Sort real data and decide a fair rule for ties
For parents
The snow project is stage 5. A child who has argued about who is seventh has learnt that sorting is not the same as ranking.
Updates tell you what your child made and explained.
For children
If two scores are the same, they get the same place.
After a tie, skip a place: 7, 7, then 9.
More courses
Nine more courses for Solingen children
All live and in English, with one regular mentor, in a group or one to one.
A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.
by Krish
Fees
Fees for Solingen families
You pay each month for eight live classes. The euro price shown uses the European Central Bank reference rate, while the charge is made in US dollars and converted by your bank, so the statement may differ by a few cents.
Reviews by parents and students on Google, in their own words.
★★★★★
"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
Solingen parents ask
Coding classes for kids in Solingen: questions from parents
Are the classes in German?
No. All lessons are live and taught in English only. The mentors are based in India; they use short sentences, show everything on screen and adapt to your child's pace and accent, so young children with little English can take part.
Is coding just more screen time?
It uses a screen, but your child is making things, not watching them. Lessons follow plan, predict, build, fix and show, with plenty of talking and thinking, and each one ends after an hour with something finished.
What age can my child start?
From six, with Scratch, where blocks snap together and nothing has to be typed. From about nine, most children are ready for typed Python.
When does Informatik start at Solingen schools?
In grade 5. The Gesellschaft für Informatik reports that Informatik is compulsory in grades 5 and 6 at all general school types in North Rhine-Westphalia. Grundschule has no compulsory Informatik.
When are classes in Solingen 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. Solingen children usually come after school or late on a weekend morning.
Which maths contests can my child enter?
The Pangea-Mathematikwettbewerb, with a first round from 23 February to 3 March 2027, and the Känguru der Mathematik on 8 April 2027. Both go through schools, so ask the class teacher.
Is the snow project real Solingen data?
Yes. It uses snow depth from Deutscher Wetterdienst station 4741, Solingen-Hohenscheid, published under the CC BY 4.0 licence and downloaded on 3 November 2026. The snow-day rule and the ranking are our own.
Who will teach my child?
One mentor based in India, live by video, for the whole course. Because India is ahead of Germany, a Solingen afternoon is the mentor's evening.
How many children are in a class?
Fifteen to twenty children of a similar age, or just your child on the one-to-one plan, with two lessons a week either way.
In what currency are fees paid?
In US dollars. We show the monthly fee in euro using the European Central Bank reference rate, and your bank converts the dollar charge, so the euro amount on your statement can vary slightly. The first class is free.
Your child solves a small puzzle and makes a first Scratch game with the mentor, who watches how they think and how much English help suits them. Afterwards you get a recommendation for a course and an age group.
Classes are live online with mentors in India, in English only. WhatsApp us in English for a fast 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.
