Caiti Bridges Art and Coding!

Twelve-year-old Caiti is in 6th grade and is homeschooled in Georgia. She likes to sew, draw, and code; in her words, do “basically anything creative and artsy.” Caiti’s projects really caught our eye, so we chatted with her to learn more about why she calls coding a hobby!

What’s your favorite subject in school? History, and probably math.

What do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher. I wanna be a little kid teacher.

How did you get introduced to Tynker? Well, my younger brother has wanted to code for a while, so we were searching for coding apps and we found Tynker and it was pretty cool.

Do you look at the Tynker community projects? Yeah. I just love looking at the different people’s projects and getting inspired to do my own.

What’s your favorite feature in Tynker? Probably getting to make my own projects.

What is your favorite thing you’ve made? The Superheroine Creator.

How did you get the idea for your project? I love watching superhero shows and stuff like that, and I’d seen people who were making those kinds of projects, and I kind of wanted to make one too, so.

Is there anything you’re working on currently? I’m working on a cooking game. I’m just trying to make something where you can make blueberry pancakes or something.

What’s something you want to make but don’t know how to yet? I want to make a big video game, but that’s extremely hard.

What do you do with a project when you’re done with it? I show it to my family. There are a couple of my projects I haven’t posted onto the community, but mainly I post them to the community.

Why do you like to code? It’s just fun. I get to make my own creations.

Do you think other kids should try coding? Yeah, I think they would like it.

What advice would you give for kids starting out with Tynker? Start out small, and then go for the big.

Caiti’s dad David thinks learning to code is important for the future, and is glad Caiti is acquiring the skill. He thinks “technology is probably the surest way to make sure you can always have success in life. For David, learning to code is “a good way to prepare for something that probably will look completely different five years from now.” David said that while coding isn’t particularly part of their homeschooling curriculum, “we’re very keen on the kids doing anything that increases their ability to think.”

Thanks for speaking with us, Caiti and David! We can’t wait to see your cooking game, and wish you the best of luck with your big video game project! Keep Tynkering!