Why MakerKids?

The #1 accelerator of human potential.

Invest‌ ‌In‌ ‌Children’s‌ ‌Future‌ ‌Career‌ ‌Success‌ ‌-‌ ‌High‌ ‌Employment‌ ‌of‌ ‌Grads‌ ‌

  • Kids learn the skills of the future, including 21st century skills, core concepts of Coding, Robotics, Engineering and more.
  • CEOs say that schools don’t adequately prepare kids for careers
  • The careers of tomorrow do not exist today; with our support and guidance, today’s children will be prepared for anything!

Expand Kids’ Answers to “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

  • Studies show that kids decide between ages 7-12 whether or not they’ll consider careers in STEM.
  • STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
  • The key is for kids to have a positive experience with STEM… and to build confidence.
  • Our country has a shortage of tech-trained workers.
  • STEM jobs are key to increasing innovation and GDP.
  • Not to mention… Some STEM jobs pay double the national wage.
  • Kids get excited about STEM with us

Best-in-Class, Award-Winning Programs

  • MakerKids was named Best Kids’ Workshop by Toronto Life Magazine
  • One of the top ten birthday party places by Today’s Parent.

Astonishing Results

  • Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and the founders of Google all had exposure to tech as kids.
  • MakerKids graduates have been featured on TV and in magazines, started businesses, won prizes from NASA, and more.
  • Our programs transform the way children see the world, the future, and their own potential.
  • A child with apraxia (a low range of vocabulary) went from a below-average range of vocabulary to an above-average range of vocabulary within a year of our Minecraft programs.
  • Parents have reported improved marks, behaviour and mental health.
  • Our CEO coded a website at age 12 that ended up going viral and being featured in a magazine, which helped her get through some bullying she was experiencing at the time and realize she could be a leader – our goal is to provide experiences like this for more kids.

We Use Technology as a Medium to Build Social-Emotional Skills

  • We don’t just teach tech – we use it as a medium to nurture confidence, social skills, and resilience through our snack chats, curriculum and more.
  • Mental health professionals refer kids to us because of the positive results they have seen with their clients.
  • MakerKids’ CEO was awarded an honorary degree from Humber College for her work in this area.
  • MakerKids parents reported significant improvements in their children: 72% improvement in computer skills, 75% increase in creativity, 75% improvement in social skills and 100% boost in confidence!
  • Kids have gone from having emotional or academic difficulties to leading clubs, improving their marks, and taking on more responsibility and ownership at home.
  • “MakerKids is a cool place where it’s cool to be smart.” – Massimo Banzi.

A Place for Quirky Kids to Make Friends

  • Kids feel like they fit in with this community of like-minded peers and feel a sense of belonging.
  • Kids make friends, learn conflict resolution skills, and collaborate to build amazing projects.
  • No need to worry about kids dragging their feet to get to programs or camp – kids love it!
  • In our weekly program, kids come at the same time each week – allowing them to build deep friendships with the other kids in their class and their instructor(s).
  • “My boys flourish here and look forward to it every week. They show social skills improvement and more confidence since coming to MakerKids and finding their “tribe.” – Tammy Isbell

Kids have so much fun they don’t realize how much they are learning

  • We start with block-based coding and don’t just focus on text-based coding which can be difficult for kids who are also learning typing.
  • Improv games throughout the day
  • Kids develop a life-long love of learning and become more engaged at school.

Kids Develop a Positive Relationship with Technology

  • Many parents outsource their children’s screen time to us.
  • We help kids move from being consumers to creators.
  • We teach kids about internet safety and self-regulation around technology.

Kids Use Industry-Leading Tools

  • Our curriculum experts have hand-picked platforms that maximize both learning and fun.
  • We also focus on starting kids off learning the general principles of coding rather than learning one specific language – most universities have gone in this direction as well, knowing that the coding languages of today may not be relevant tomorrow.
  • These aren’t just exercises – kids get to make real projects and see the results of their work by creating video games, websites, 3D designs, robotics projects, and more.
  • For example, as part of our Robotics curriculum we use Arduinos, the same microcontrollers that were used to prototype the Square credit card reader and the Pebble smart watch.
  • The CEO of Arduino is on our Board of Advisors.
  • As part of our Coding programs, we use a platform that was used to make some of the top games in the App Store.

Expert-Written & Time-Tested Curriculum

  • We’ve written curriculum for Intel, Mozilla, 3D Systems, Queen’s University, and City of Toronto summer camps.
  • Our team has backgrounds in engineering, entrepreneurship, Singularity University at NASA, teaching and more.
  • MakerKids’ curriculum has been refined over 7 years.
  • Our CEO was selected for the OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) Professional Advisory Committee.
  • Our curriculum is project-based and interest-driven.

Experienced, Vetted & Highly Trained Instructors

  • Kids learn from NASA-educated entrepreneurs, teachers and engineers.
  • Instructors are police-checked, triple reference-checked, first-aid trained, and go through extensive training.
  • They have incredible backgrounds in technology and working with kids, e.g. the Ontario Science Centre, and more.
  • We only select around 1 in every hundred job applicants, through a 7-step interview process.
  • We’ve also trained school boards and teachers on how to teach STEM.

Instructor:Child Ratio

  • We maintain a 1:8 or better instructor to child ratio
  • Some other places have drop-in programs which makes this impossible to achieve

World-Renowned Programs

  • Our CEO has been invited to give talks at industry-leading conferences (e.g. Maker Faire, MakerCon, SXSW, etc) in Rome, NYC, California, Norway and more.
  • Wired says we “encourage creativity and confidence”.
  • Our CEO was selected for the Singularity University program at NASA (from over 3000 applicants), where she learned to apply exponential technologies to education.

Recognized by Industry and School Boards

  • We’ve partnered with Google, Twitter and more and run workshops for them.
  • The Director of Education at Intel said: “I think that MakerKids is doing some outstanding things for kids. Let’s get more kids into making.”

Best-In-Class Standards. Accredited and Safe

  • You may be surprised to know that some technology camps do not even police-check their instructors.
  • With MakerKids, you don’t have to worry – as an Accredited member of the Ontario Camps Association, MakerKids follows over 200+ best-in-class safety standards.
  • Feel good about sending children here. We know how special kids are, and we take care to protect and look after them in accordance with the highest standards of care.
  • Here are some examples of our many standards: we don’t allow nuts at our locations, we police check all our instructors, and we have an ID-based sign-out policy.

Parent-Recommended

  • Many clients hear about us from a friend’s recommendation.
  • 9/10 parents surveyed recommend our programs.
  • Some families have come from as far as the Carribean to attend our camps!

Industry Pioneer

  • MakerKids started the first makerspace for kids in the world.
  • MakerKids was the first mover in this space, and created the category – now in addition to going to after-school programs on art, music, dance and sports, kids go to technology after-school programs.
  • Accept no imitations – MakerKids is the original and leading concept.

Great for Kids with ADHD, on the Autism Spectrum, and/or with Learning Disabilities

  • We welcome all audiences to MakerKids and have special training for our staff on these topics.
  • Some parents tell us they are using our programs as a form of high-tech arts therapy for their child!
  • MakerKids’ CEO was recently invited to give a TEDx talk about this.

Call us at 1-844-MAKERKIDS to book your camp, program or party today!


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    We have virtual programs for your city!

    Minecraft Programs & Camps
    Coding Programs & Camps
    Robotics Programs & Camps

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