Ask Lemmy

Obviously you’ll want to start with absolute basics like mouse and keyboard navigation.

Beyond that? Maybe something involving a ‘treasure hunt’ to learn about navigating files and folders, renaming files, and copying vs. moving them.

Anecdotally, I’ve heard lots of kids coming up now really struggle with the concept of file systems, so it’s definitely something worth teaching early.

Really depends on what they're into in general, but if they show interest in coding, I'd recommend Scratch. It's a coding platform made (primarily) for kids, I got really into it once, and still tinker with it sometimes. I'd say that Scratch is easy to learn, hard to master, and fun.

Honestly give them Minecraft and let them loose on that. For a 7yo that's a great challenge.

You could install something like LMMS and let them experiment with making their own music (without needing recording equipment or learning real instruments yet).

You could do what my dad did and accidently delete some of the system files, leaving it for your kid to fix.

The reason I want my children to have access to a computer specifically, is that while TVs and phones are used to consume, computers are used to create.

Joking aside, that's an interesting perspective. I hadnt really thought of it that way before, despite using a computer to create things almost every day.

Does your kid like minecraft? Make a game with them on the minetest/luanti engine. For a base game you can use Minetest Game or a minecraft clone like Mineclonia and follow this modding book. Have the kid make 16x16px textures in gimp and you can rtegister some modded blocks Its as easy as this:

minetest.register_node("default:stone", { description = S("Stone"), tiles = {"default_stone.png"}, groups = {cracky = 3, stone = 1}, drop = "default:cobble", legacy_mineral = true, sounds = default.node_sound_stone_defaults(), })

https://www.luanti.org/en/

https://rubenwardy.com/minetest_modding_book/en/index.html

• Editing a text file (I guess writing a story has that covered?)

• Deleting a program (I did not know how to remove programs for the longest time as a kid… this was on windows, mind you. I figured just deleting the desktop icon was all it took. Oops.)

• Changing display resolution and scale (Really just poking around the accessibility menu in general is valuable, lots of useful stuff even for someone with good vision etc.)

I'm not exactly young anymore and things have sure changed a lot since I learned my way around a computer. But here are the things I remember being fun for me back then:

• Drawing around in paint (you already have that covered)

• Creating presentations. Maybe like: Make a presentation about your favourite topic. This might involve collecting pictures either from the internet or getting them from a camera / phone on the laptop.

• Playing some games (in my case pinball, but that's definitely not very up to date). You can learn quite a bit about clicking through menus etc from playing games.

Something else that would be important to learn early is created folders and keeping some sort of system with your files. I struggle to come up with a fun way to teach that though. Maybe someone else has a good idea?

Have him open it up, clean the dust, and put it back together again.

You can make an image of the / drive so it's easier to restore if they break the system.

I you can slowly teach them to use the command line, if they can read fluently using the cli shouldn't be that hard. You can teach them the basic commands, and teach them to install a program with apt.

Also, you said write a short story? The teach them vim (or emacs if you prefer that).

You can install vmpk (or some other music keyboard emulation program) so they can play some music. And if they get more interested get them LMMS and later ardour + advanced stuff.

Krita is a super nice program to draw, and colour (tho no fun without a drawing tablet), maybe you can teach them vectorial drawing on inkscape. And if they like it then install Blender and go 3D.

Those tasks sound simple enough :3

Could also throw in things like take a screenshot, or file navigation. If they've not used a computer knowing where to find things will come in handy

My kids have Raspberry Pi 400s (which I ought to upgrade to 500s, as they complain about them being too slow).

I think those specifically are a good choice for this use-case because they come with a big (physical, paper!) book that teaches kids all sorts of stuff that can be done with them.

Give them the gentoo install guide.

If you can figure out how to get it all running, there used to be a lot of really good edu-tainment software in the 90s.

• Zoombinis
• The Incredible Machine
• Etc

Maybe something creative, like making a poster in libre office?

I remember when i was 10-ish ms Word 97 was the shit. I liked to use word art to create and print my name and other texts. Children this age like to be creative if you show him a program and let him loose exploring it, he'll learn a lot.

This is a wonderful idea.

Off hand, I would agree with understanding file navigation. I would suggest you make a sort of capture the flag treasure hunt. First round, find the file. Second round, move the file. Third round, rename the file.

Installing and uninstalling apps, including looking at reviews online to see what app is best for drawing, for example. Say the challenge is you can only install 2 apps and can only keep one.

Hour to add and delete bookmarks from the browser.

Good luck with this!

Scratch (programming suite) or ScratchJR to start

Tobbie2 robot (STEM focus, build the robot and then program the BBC micro:bit board inside)

GCompris - educational games

Anki - flashcard based learning, of many downloadable topics(whatever their interests are)

Ktuberling - Mr Potatohead, scene creator

Powdertoy - Falling sand sandbox physics program. Can be fun(TNT) or serious, plenty of downloadable creations like: nuclear reactor, steam turbine, car(ICE) etc

Break the system so hard that you need to reinstall the system.

Blender is cool but without a lot of guidance it is impossible to use. Blockbench is easier, and they could figure out how to put their creation inside Minecraft.

Pivot animator but it would need to run under wine/proton

Make a song, I would look into bosca ceoil blue and audacity.

Make a short movie

For real this time:

Drag and drop

Copy paste

Select multiple things

Compress and decompress archive

Google something

Find home on the map

Listen to a song.

Send email.

Take a photo with built-in camera and screenshot.

Take a backup

Share a file over the network.

Make terminal go brrrrrr du / (cowsay, lolcat and cmatrix are also fun)

Input an emoji

Change wallpaper, enable wobbly windows and THE CUBE

Let them play colobot. It's very cool game (it has a rocket, alien spiders, and robots), and it lets you program your robots. Besides programming, they can also learn reading documentation.

An arduino would pair well and do some pretty cool stuff, maybe motivate them towards coding. They make some Lego compatible projects too. Maybe also typing challenge games or offline only minecraft

A great skill to have in life regsthing computers is typing fast, so give him the challenge to reach a certain wpm

gcompris.

Covers:

• keyboard, mouse, and (if appicable) touchscreen use
• geography
• science
• reading
• math
• memory

The challenge sets itself. I recommend starting there - my kids love it.

take a look at endless os.

https://www.endlessglobal.com/foundation/access/operating-system

specifically, the 'full' install with all the goodies and content 'preinstalled'.

notes from personal experience (i use endless at home): don't be tempted by the ability to install alongside windows and dual boot. it's not optimal by any stretch. that configuration uses windows as the boot manager (windows has to basically boot to get to that menu), and endless and its data is then stored in a loop device (slow, especially with old hdd). do a normal install (use the 'advanced' option in the windows installer to make an 'endless usb stick' then choose the 'full' image). you will need a 64gb flash drive for an english language 'full' installer of the current (6.0.8) version.

I learnt as a 5 year old typing stuff into DOS because I wanted to play games on it.

What do your kids want to do at the computer? That drive will make them motivated learners.

Do you intend to include internet/web surfing, or hold back on that until later?

Search engines can be very useful, while also being awful.

But I do think teaching the kiddo how to navigate the website of your local library would be a good lesson for them.

Ill steal some suggestions I liked from other commenters and add my own.

• Draw a picture
• Write a letter to someone
• Find home on the map and calculate distances to school, grandparents, friends, etc
• Make a simple song
• Design something simple using CAD software (you'd need to find something really simple to learn/use. Someone suggested a program that I assume allows you to design minecraft buildings external to minecraft)

And most importantly for me:

• Research one or several topics. Youd need to do the research yourself beforehand, as well as pick topics you know align roughly with your child's areas of interest, but if they gain the skill of looking up information for themselves and finding the answer, pretty much anything is within their grasp IMO. Maybe set this as the first one so they can apply it for whatever further challenges you set them (extreme example but e.g. "How to create dog in blender" if you set them the task of using blender to design something). On that note, maybe set 2 distinct types of research topics - such as technical tasks and information tasks. What I mean is: "how do i install x, y, z program and use it" would be a technical task in my opinion, whereas something like "why are farmers legally forbidden from replanting seeds from their crops" would be an information task.

Best of luck!

Find them a program like KidPix and just let them make stuff!

• Krita is free and awesome for that age. Maybe install it together. If you have a tablet or touch screen, it's really fun.
• How familiar are you with (also free) Blender? You would have to install it and learn the basics. Just the 3d sculpting program might be a blast for him and have him edit a UV sphere. There are a few basic tips to get you going, but kids pick it up way easier than adults do.
  • The object mode is for the overall, individual objects
  • The edit mode is to work on, inside, the object you select
  • You absolutely have to have a scroll mouse
  • There is a description in the lower left corner that lets you edit the mesh you're "adding" or putting in, then it goes away. This messes up a lot of people.
  • At the top are tabs that let you select a layout for Blender for each focus. There is one for sculpting.
  • The upper right has a lot of icons that let you move around the program (solid, see-thru, etc., and perspective. You would have to know this stuff.
  • This video is for you right now if you don't know anything, and for him in a couple of years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOmYInaX-wE
• Have him search Wikipedia on something he loves and to look for the sources.
• Have him look for, speed up if necessary, and learn from youtube tutorials on topics that interest him.

Side note: Affinity (photoshop alternative) just became free, but I think that's too much. Good to know about though.

Get an old 486 and have them install doom via discs heh

It's never too early to learn navigating drives and folders using the command line!

What was the curriculum you used for them to learn to read?