Skip to content
Ellis Abel Learns.

Coding Summer Camp in Naperville, IL

Naperville is one of the cities the Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL-IN metro area is officially named after. Coding Summer Camp works the same way here as anywhere: give a child a problem too hard to guess at, then refuse to hand them the answer.

Ages 7-14 · For families · Illinois · Midwest

Coding Summer Camp — Ellis Abel Learns STEM summer camp materials used in Naperville, IL
Coding Summer Camp — Ellis Abel Learns STEM summer camp materials used in Naperville, IL

What the week actually is

Most coding camps teach syntax and lose the child by Wednesday. This one teaches the loop — write, run, it breaks, read the error, fix it — because that loop is what a programmer actually does and it is learnable at seven.

Day by day

  1. Logic on paper before a keyboard
  2. First program, first error message
  3. Read the error, fix the error
  4. Build something with a user who is not you
  5. Showcase: hand it to someone and watch

Naperville, IL — what applies locally

  • Naperville is one of the cities the Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL-IN metro area is officially named after.
  • Metro area: Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL-IN
  • State: Illinois · Region: Midwest

Questions we get from Naperville, IL

Which language?
Block-based for the youngest, then Python. The language matters far less than whether the child will read an error message instead of panicking.
Screen time all week?
No. Roughly half the week is off-screen: planning on paper, tracing logic by hand, testing on each other.
Is it too late to start at 13?
No. Thirteen-year-olds move faster than anyone; what they need is a reason, not an earlier start.

Other camp themes in Naperville

Coding Camp elsewhere in Illinois

All Coding Camp locations · Full camp directory · Ask about a place