--- title: "Year-Round Coding Classes vs Summer Camps in The Bahamas" description: "A week is about 20 hours. A year is 72 plus 51 gaps to build in. The arithmetic, the forgetting problem, and four situations where a camp is the better buy." canonical: https://learn.modernagecoders.com/year-round-coding-classes-vs-summer-camps-bahamas source: src/pages/year-round-coding-classes-vs-summer-camps-bahamas.html --- > A week is about 20 hours. A year is 72 plus 51 gaps to build in. The arithmetic, the forgetting problem, and four situations where a camp is the better buy. Courses ## The courses a year actually covers Twelve months, four quarters, four finished things. This is what fills them. [![Python for Teens course thumbnail](/images/python-teens.webp) YEAR / 01 Python for Teens Quarter one, and the spine of the whole year for a student arriving without code. Open the syllabus →](/courses/python-complete-masterclass-teens)[![Data Science for Teens course thumbnail](/images/data-science-teens.webp) YEAR / 02 Data Science for Teens Quarter two. The messy files that make quarter three mean something. Open the syllabus →](/courses/data-science-course-for-teens-python-data)[![AI and Machine Learning for Teens course thumbnail](/images/ai-ml-teens.webp) YEAR / 03 AI and Machine Learning for Teens Quarter three, where a model finally has to beat doing nothing clever. Open the syllabus →](/courses/ai-ml-masterclass-teens) The rest of the catalogue is [Python and AI for Kids](/courses/python-ai-kids-masterclass) · [AI Literacy for Kids](/courses/ai-literacy-for-kids-course) · [Python for Teens](/courses/python-complete-masterclass-teens) · [AI and Machine Learning for Teens](/courses/ai-ml-masterclass-teens) · [Data Science for Teens](/courses/data-science-course-for-teens-python-data) · [Git and GitHub](/courses/git-github-version-control-course-for-teens) · [AI and ML Masterclass](/courses/ai-ml-masterclass-complete-college) · [Generative AI: LLMs, RAG and Agents](/courses/complete-generative-ai-masterclass-college). The full list is on the [catalogue](/courses). In short A week-long holiday camp gives a child about twenty concentrated contact hours and then nothing to do with them. Twelve months of weekly ninety-minute sessions gives about seventy-two hours plus fifty-one intervals in which the student is expected to build something, and it is in those intervals that most progress actually happens. This page compares the two honestly, including the four situations where a camp is the better purchase, and explains why we insist on the same teacher for twelve months rather than treating continuity as a comfort feature. Start with the arithmetic ## A week is twenty hours. A year is seventy-two, plus everything in between. Before any argument about pedagogy, it is worth putting the two things side by side as quantities, because the gap is larger than most families assume. | | A one-week camp | This twelve-month track | | --- | --- | --- | | Contact hours | About 20, in five days | About 72, across 12 months | | Teacher continuity | One week | The same person all year | | Written progress record | Rarely | Monthly, per student | | Finished, published projects | Usually one, often unfinished | Four, one per quarter | | Commit history at the end | Five days of it | Twelve months of dated work | | Gaps in which to build alone | None | Fifty-one | The final row is the one that actually decides the outcome and it is the hardest to see on a brochure. A camp gives a child twenty concentrated hours and then nothing to do with them. A weekly programme gives them seventy-two hours across a year and, crucially, fifty-one gaps in which they are expected to build something. Almost all real progress in this subject happens in the gaps. The mechanism ## Why a skill met in July and not touched until July is re-learned, not built This is not a criticism of camps. It is a property of how anybody learns a language, and programming is a language. Anybody who has learned an instrument or a second language knows the shape of this. Twenty hours in one week produces a genuine ability that then decays, and decays fastest in the first month because nothing is reinforcing it. Eleven months later the student is not back at zero, which is a real benefit, but they are a long way below where they finished. What that means in practice is that a child attending a camp every summer for four years does not accumulate four years of ability. They accumulate something closer to a year and a half, repeatedly re-approached. Parents can usually see this happening and often blame the child or the camp, when it is neither. Weekly teaching works differently for a boring structural reason: nothing has time to decay before it is used again. A concept met in week three is needed in week five and assumed by week nine, so it gets consolidated by use rather than by revision. That is also why we set something to build between sessions rather than something to complete: the build is what keeps last week alive. And it is why we insist on the same teacher for twelve months. Continuity is not a comfort feature. It is the mechanism by which somebody notices in month seven that a student never really understood something in month two, which nobody can do across four different summers with four different instructors. In fairness to camps ## Four situations where a camp is the better purchase, honestly ### You do not yet know if they like it This is the strongest case for a camp and it is a real one. A week is a cheap, fast, low-commitment experiment, and it is a better first purchase than a year of anything. Pay attention to whether they talk about it afterwards rather than to what they made. ### The social experience is the point Being in a room with other children doing something difficult is valuable in a way a weekly online session does not fully replicate. For a younger child especially, that may be exactly what you are buying, and it is worth buying. ### The schedule genuinely will not hold A family who knows in advance that weekly commitment will not survive is better off with concentrated weeks than with a year of missed sessions. We would rather say that than take a booking we can see failing. ### There is a specific short-format thing on offer A robotics week, a game-making week, a hardware project that needs equipment nobody has at home. Those are genuinely better done in person and in a block, and we cannot offer them. ### What a week cannot do Reach the third rung. Data handling and measured modelling take months rather than days, so a camp that promises AI in a week is almost always demonstrating a pre-built model rather than training one. ### What a week also cannot do Produce a commit history. Five days of work is five days of evidence, and the thing that persuades a reader is a year of small dated commits, which is not compressible. We should also say plainly that volunteer, nonprofit and school-based programmes in the Bahamas have done real work getting equipment and enthusiasm into classrooms, and a child who has been through one of those usually arrives here with better instincts than one who has not. None of this page is an argument against them. It is an argument about what a continuous paid programme has to offer in order to be worth paying for. Before you pay for either ## Six questions that separate the two more reliably than any brochure These work on us as well, and we would rather you asked them than took a page like this at face value. ### You do not yet know if they like it This is the strongest case for a camp and it is a real one. A week is a cheap, fast, low-commitment experiment, and it is a better first purchase than a year of anything. Pay attention to whether they talk about it afterwards rather than to what they made. ### The social experience is the point Being in a room with other children doing something difficult is valuable in a way a weekly online session does not fully replicate. For a younger child especially, that may be exactly what you are buying, and it is worth buying. ### The schedule genuinely will not hold A family who knows in advance that weekly commitment will not survive is better off with concentrated weeks than with a year of missed sessions. We would rather say that than take a booking we can see failing. ### There is a specific short-format thing on offer A robotics week, a game-making week, a hardware project that needs equipment nobody has at home. Those are genuinely better done in person and in a block, and we cannot offer them. ### What a week cannot do Reach the third rung. Data handling and measured modelling take months rather than days, so a camp that promises AI in a week is almost always demonstrating a pre-built model rather than training one. ### What a week also cannot do Produce a commit history. Five days of work is five days of evidence, and the thing that persuades a reader is a year of small dated commits, which is not compressible. 2 The sensible combination ## Use a camp to find out, and a year to get somewhere These are not competing products for the same job, and the best answer for many families uses both. If you do not yet know whether your child likes this, a week-long camp is a cheap, fast, low-commitment way to find out, and it is a better first purchase than a year of anything. Send them, see what happens, and pay attention to whether they talk about it afterwards rather than to what they produced. If they came back talking about it, that is the moment for continuity, because enthusiasm has a short half-life and the summer is a long way from the next one. Starting in September with something still fresh is considerably easier than restarting the following July. Our own free first class is a smaller version of the same test: one session, no card, one problem, and an honest answer about what your child actually did with it. It is not a substitute for a week of immersion but it costs nothing and takes ninety minutes. What the year then adds is the four things a week structurally cannot: the same teacher throughout, a written record per student, four finished projects rather than one unfinished one, and [a repository with twelve months of dated commits](/github-portfolio-for-students-bahamas) in it. That is set out in full on [the track page](/python-and-ai-track-for-students-bahamas). What families say ## Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews Real reviews from real families. We neither write nor commission them. ★★★★★ "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 Fees ## The cost comparison, plainly At USD 100 a month a year of group teaching is USD 1,200, charged monthly and stoppable at the end of any month. A week-long camp typically costs a few hundred. Per contact hour the camp often looks cheaper; per finished project and per month of retained ability it does not, and both of those are the things you are actually buying. Free first class USD 0 no card required - Taught, not sold - It settles which stage the learner starts at - You watch it, then decide Book it Group batch USD 100 a month, billed in US dollars - Five to eight students, one teacher throughout - Live video, never a recording - Weekly build work reviewed by the teacher - Certificate on completion Start here One to one USD 150 a month, billed in US dollars - Private teaching at your own pace - The only way to get a weekday morning slot - Syllabus shaped to the goal Enquire Comparing the options ## What Bahamian parents ask when weighing this up ### Should we do a camp first, then this? If you do not yet know whether your child enjoys this, yes, and that is a genuine recommendation rather than politeness. A week is a cheap and fast experiment. What we would add is that enthusiasm has a short half-life, so if they come back talking about it, starting in the autumn while it is still fresh works considerably better than waiting for the next summer. ### Is seventy-two hours a year really better than twenty in a week? The hours are the smaller part of the answer. The larger part is the fifty-one gaps, because a concept met in week three and needed again in week five gets consolidated by use rather than by revision. Twenty hours with nothing afterwards decays fastest in the first month, which is why four summers of camp does not add up to four years of ability. ### How much does it cost? A group batch of five to eight students is USD 100 a month and one to one teaching is USD 150 a month, billed in US dollars. A year at the group rate is USD 1,200, charged monthly rather than up front, with no enrolment fee and no minimum term, so you can stop at the end of any month. The first class is free without a card. ### What about the local robotics and school programmes? They do real work and we are not arguing against them. Getting equipment and enthusiasm into Bahamian classrooms is a genuine good, and children who have been through those programmes usually arrive here with better instincts. What a volunteer or grant-funded effort cannot easily promise is the same teacher every week for a year, a written record per student, and a portfolio with twelve months of dated commits. ### Can we pause over the summer? Yes, and there is no penalty. What we would say honestly is that long gaps are the main enemy of a twelve-month programme, so if the break is going to be six weeks, one session in the middle to keep the project alive is worth more than it sounds. A paused month costs you that month and nothing else. ### Is a weekly online session as good as being in a room? For the social experience, no, and we will not pretend otherwise. For the learning, in this particular subject, generally yes and sometimes better: screens are shared both ways so a teacher sees code being written and interrupts as the misconception forms, which is harder in a room of twenty children with one instructor circulating. ### What if my child is bored after three months? Then we change the project before we change anything else. Nearly every bored student we have seen was working on somebody else's idea, and letting them pick something they can check the answer to fixes it more often than not. If it does not, stop: there is no minimum term, and a child paying attention to something else is not learning anything from us. ### Do camps teach AI in a week? Some advertise it, and what is usually happening is a demonstration of a pre-built model rather than a student training one. That is not dishonest and it is genuinely useful for explaining what these systems do. It is simply a different thing from the third quarter of this track, which takes months because data handling and evaluation cannot be compressed into days. ### Which is better for a university application? The year, and not because it sounds more serious. A reader can open a repository with twelve months of dated commits and assess it. A certificate of camp attendance carries almost no information, and five days of work cannot produce the history that makes student work persuasive. That argument is set out on the portfolio page. ### What happens after we send the form? A mentor telephones you at a Bahamian hour to arrange the free session, which is a smaller version of the same experiment a camp offers: one problem, ninety minutes, no card, and an honest account of what your child did with it. If the answer is that they are not ready or not interested, that is useful information and it costs you nothing. Start here ## A free session is a cheaper experiment than a camp The free first class is one problem, ninety minutes, no card and no obligation, and it gives you the same information a week-long camp gives you about whether your child takes to this, at a fraction of the commitment. What comes back is a specific view: which stage they are at, whether weekly teaching is the right shape for your household, and occasionally that a camp would suit them better first. Rather read first? [The twelve-month track](/python-and-ai-track-for-students-bahamas), [coding for younger children](/coding-classes-for-kids-in-nassau), or [how we teach](/how-we-teach). [WhatsApp us](https://wa.me/919123366161?text=Hello%20Modern%20Age%20Coders%2C%20I%20want%20a%20free%20class%20for%20a%20student%20in%20the%20Bahamas%2C%20and%20I%20am%20comparing%20a%20year-round%20class%20with%20a%20summer%20camp.) · [+91 91233 66161](tel:+919123366161) · [contact@modernagecoders.com](mailto:contact@modernagecoders.com) We hold no premises anywhere in the Bahamas. Every session is a live video call taught from India, and the number above rings in India. [Chat with us](https://wa.me/919123366161?text=Hi%2C%20I'm%20interested%20in%20learning%20more%20about%20your%20courses!) --- *Canonical: https://learn.modernagecoders.com/year-round-coding-classes-vs-summer-camps-bahamas*