Scratch

Scratch is the free block-based programming environment from MIT. In our assessment, it is not a curriculum, exactly, but a substrate on which elementary computing education can be built.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Subject specialist (computer science / coding)
Worldview	Secular
Grades	K-12 (ScratchJr ages 5-7; Scratch ages 8-16+)
Formats	Browser-based digital tool; iPad and Android apps for ScratchJr
Cost tier	Free
Parent intensity	2
ESA-common	No (no purchase required)
Accredited	No
Website	scratch.mit.edu

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	4	Real computational thinking; ceiling at intermediate programming
Ease of teaching	4	Intuitive enough that children teach themselves; parent involvement minimal
Content quality	5	Strong educational tool design from MIT Media Lab
Flexibility	5	Open-ended creative platform; children build whatever they imagine
Value for money	5	Free, including unlimited cloud project hosting
Worldview scope	5	Secular, used across all worldviews and contexts
Visual/design	4	Friendly and functional; not flashy by 2026 standards
Support resources	4	Free Harvard Creative Computing Curriculum; vast community library

Who the publisher is

Scratch was created in 2007 by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab, led by Mitchel Resnick. Scratch was originally a downloadable desktop application; in 2013 the team relaunched as a browser-based platform, and in 2019 Scratch 3.0 added support for tablets and a redesigned block palette. The platform remains free, advertisement-free, and ad-supported by no one, operations are funded by the Scratch Foundation, a nonprofit, with grants from major technology companies and foundations.

As of 2026 the Scratch online community reports more than 100 million registered users worldwide, with tens of millions of shared projects in its public library.

ScratchJr, the iPad and Android app for ages five to seven, is a separate but related project developed jointly by the MIT group, the DevTech Research Group at Tufts, and the Playful Invention Company. ScratchJr uses an even simpler block syntax, picture-based, no text required, and is designed for children who cannot yet read.

The core pedagogy

Scratch teaches programming by letting children build the programs they actually want to build: a story, an animation, a chase game, a music sequencer, a quiz that asks the user questions. The interface presents a stage on the left, a sprite library at bottom-left, a code area in the middle, and a palette of colored code blocks on the right. The child drags blocks ("when green flag clicked," "move 10 steps," "if touching color red"), snaps them into stacks, and the sprite responds. There is no syntax to memorize, no semicolons to forget, no compiler to placate. The child sees, immediately, what the code does.

Scope and sequence in Scratch is not linear in the textbook sense, the platform is open-ended, and a determined child can encounter most fundamental programming concepts (sequencing, loops, conditionals, variables, broadcasts, cloning, lists, simple data structures) within a year of regular use. What the platform does not do is enforce any particular path. A family that wants structure can pair Scratch with a published curriculum: the Creative Computing Curriculum Guide from Harvard's ScratchEd team is a free option, with twenty hours of structured projects from drawing to interactive games. Paid alternatives layered on top of Scratch include Khan Academy's computing courses (which use a JavaScript variant rather than Scratch proper) and various paid Scratch courses from Outschool and CodeMonkey.

Signature mechanics: (1) Block-based syntax. Children cannot make a syntax error. The block fits or it does not. In our assessment, this eliminates the largest barrier to entry in traditional programming instruction. (2) Immediate feedback. Click the green flag, see the sprite move. The latency between code and observable result is roughly one second, which keeps young learners engaged in a way that compile-and-run text languages do not. (3) Remix culture. Every public Scratch project can be remixed: a child opens someone else's game, changes the cat to a dragon, the score to a high-score tracker, and learns by modifying running code. In our assessment, this is the platform's most important pedagogical contribution.

What they do exceptionally well

On-ramp to computational thinking. In our assessment, Scratch is the strongest entry point to programming available to children. The ramp-down in friction matters.

Free, complete, and noncommercial. Scratch costs nothing, contains no advertising, requires no purchase decisions, and works on essentially any laptop made in the last ten years. The Scratch Foundation is funded by foundations and technology-company grants rather than by user fees, and there is no upsell path. This matters particularly for homeschool families operating on tight budgets and for ESA-funded families whose programs do not pay for free tools but who can use Scratch alongside paid math curricula at no incremental cost.

Community library as instructional resource. The fifty-million-plus public projects on Scratch are themselves a curriculum. A child who is stuck on collision detection can search "collision detection," find a hundred working examples, remix one, and learn how it works by modifying it. In our assessment, few educational platforms have this scale of peer-generated instructional content.

What they do poorly

Ceiling at intermediate programming. Scratch is excellent for the first two to three years of a child's coding education and increasingly limiting after that. The block syntax begins to feel cramped when projects grow large; recursion is awkward; advanced data structures are limited; performance with many sprites becomes a constraint. By roughly age twelve, the strongest students should transition to a text-based language. Python, JavaScript, or for the more ambitious, the Harvard CS50 introductory course.

Not a complete computer-science curriculum. Scratch is a tool, not a curriculum. Pairing with a structured curriculum (Harvard's free Creative Computing guide, paid courses from CodeMonkey or Tynker, or middle-school AP Computer Science Principles materials) makes a real difference.

Online community supervision. The Scratch online community is moderated and generally well-behaved by internet standards, but it is still an online community where children share projects and exchange comments. Families who want fully offline coding instruction for their elementary-aged children should use ScratchJr or the downloadable offline Scratch editor, which provide the same coding environment without the social layer.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Scratch if: you want to introduce a child age six to twelve to programming for free; the child responds to creative, open-ended tools and projects; you can pair Scratch with a structured curriculum (Harvard Creative Computing or similar) for accountability; the family has reliable internet and a laptop or tablet; the child has shown interest in animations, games, or storytelling.

• Skip Scratch if: you want a structured, sequential curriculum that tells the child exactly what to learn next (consider CodeMonkey or Tynker); the child is in high school and ready for text-based languages (move directly to Python via Khan Academy, Codecademy, or Harvard CS50); the family wants a parent-led classroom-style coding curriculum rather than a tool the child explores independently.

Cost honest assessment

Scratch is free. There is no subscription, no upgrade tier, no premium content. The Scratch Foundation accepts donations but does not require them. The Harvard Creative Computing Curriculum Guide is also free. The platform runs in any modern browser; ScratchJr is a free iPad or Android download.

Compared to paid block-based platforms like Tynker (roughly $20 per month) or CodeMonkey (roughly $130 per year for the Coding Adventure curriculum) or in-person Code Ninjas franchise membership (roughly $200 per month), In our assessment, Scratch's cost advantage is essentially unbeatable. The trade-off is structure: paid programs deliver curriculum-on-rails; Scratch delivers tools and a community library and asks the family to provide structure.

ESA eligibility notes

Scratch is free and therefore irrelevant to ESA reimbursement workflows, there is nothing to purchase. Some state ESAs will reimburse for Outschool live Scratch classes taught by individual instructors, which can be a useful structure overlay for families who want accountability without committing to a full paid curriculum.

Alternatives

• CodeMonkey, a family would pick CodeMonkey over Scratch alone for a structured, sequential curriculum with built-in lessons, automated assessment, and explicit progression to Python.
• Tynker, a family would pick Tynker over Scratch for a paid platform that combines block-based coding with structured curriculum and Minecraft / Roblox modding tracks built specifically for children.
• Khan Academy Computing, a family would pick Khan Academy over Scratch for a free curriculum that uses a JavaScript-like language and structured video lessons, better suited to a child who is ready to move beyond block syntax.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed scratch.mit.edu, the Scratch Foundation site, the ScratchJr site, and Harvard ScratchEd's Creative Computing Curriculum Guide in April 2026. We cross-referenced founding history and platform specifications against MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten group documentation and Wikipedia's Scratch entry. Community size figures verified from the Scratch statistics page in April 2026.