Hi all,

My 8 year old is asking if he can learn how to program. He has asked specifically if I could set him up with a ‘programming kit with lessons’ for a Christmas present. I’d like to support this, and it seems like it’s not a transient interest as he’s been all over scratch, and using things like minecraft commands for the last year. I have an old (pre 2017) MacBook Air I can set up for this. How do I / what would you advise I set up for him, to a) keep him safe online (he’s 8!) and b) give him the tools he needs in a structured way.

I am not a programmer. I know enough bash/shell and basic unix stuff to be dangerous and I was a front end dev a very long time ago, but I wouldn’t call myself a programmer and don’t know what concepts he needs to learn first.

Hugely appreciate any advice, thanks.

Edit: So I posted this then had a busy family day and came back to so many comments! I will methodically go through these all, thanks so much.

A couple of things on resources: he has expressed interest in 3D worlds and I noticed comments on engines, but wonder if that’s too advanced?

Totally agree with the short feedback loop rather than projects that take days.

He has an iPad 6 and I’m happy to pop a Linux distro on the Air, so certainly open to that.

So many links to research. Hugely grateful.

  • MrJay
    2·
    1 year ago

    minecraft can work really well for learning how tp program, when I was 9 that is how I started, unfortunately its been a long time since I took that course but if you are willing to do the research there should be a some for server programming and java modding at least that is what I took over 11 years ago at this point, and maybe javascript for gametest framework for bedrock edition. there is also minetest which is a little better for learning but isn’t minecraft so is a little bit more annoying but lets you modify basically anything you want which is very fun. also a great way to learn boolean algebra/circuit design in minecraft/minetest, redstone can be used to make micro computers like calculators, fun and can be applicable to making games in minecraft which makes it more engaging as well. also the minecraft commands can be put into a mcfunction file as you can imagine this can be generated by outputting text to the file, this is great because you learn file io and a programming language and mostly he would be using math to generate things so teaches math, its limited but that is something he would find fun that is super easy and can be done in basically any language.

    redstone/mcfunctions I personally like this approach on top of the course because it gives him something useful so should hopefully encourage him to play and program after he finishes lessons and etc…