I promised my kid they’d get a laptop when they learn to read well enough.
This turned out to be a good motivator and they can now read full books.
The kid likes competitions and challenges. I would like to come up with tasks they can learn to do with the laptop.
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.
I will be installing some Linux flavor on this machine, as it is a bit dated.
I was thinking about things like:
- Write a short story
- Install a graphics editing program
- Draw a picture of a cat
To get them started.
Probably I need some easier ones first.
The first thing I did in Linux was to change my wallpaper/ UI and Icon themes.
Maybe these would be really easy first challenges that a child would look into anyways, to make the system feel like theirs. I remember constantly changing wallpapers when I was a kid. I wonder what I’d had done with the options Linux offered.
Further down the line I’d explain
sudo apt update/ upgrade (or equivalent)to them, so they can do some basic maintenance.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.
Maybe coming up with coded messages? With a code language.
(they don’t need to be difficult)
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
A great skill to have in life regsthing computers is typing fast, so give him the challenge to reach a certain wpm
IT guy here, I disagree, typing fast isn’t really useful enough to dedicate focus to.
I have never formally learned typing fast, I developed my own version of touch typing as I gamed and typed as I grew up.
I am a decently quick typist when typing normally, but my speed absolutely plummet when I do typing speed tests, I find it increadibly annoying to retype stuff from the screen.
Typing speed in and of itself is fairly meaningless, once you have gone beyond the hunt-and-peck stage.
From cmd line, run a game
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.
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.
I love the treasure hunt idea.
Hey dad, Thinkercad is 100% online and has one of those building blocks coding. It has courses for young kids and he can even learn how to model in 3d. Very simple and fun
if they have shown any interest at all in programming, regular expressions is another topic that would be worthwhile to start learning ‘early’.
Is there a good place to start learning regular expressions as if I’m a young kiddo who just learned to finally read? Lol
…I have a wee one on the way so I’d like to get ahead of this knowledge myself lol. 😅
Damn. I love this community. Lemmy goes hard.
“My kid can read now.”
“It’s never too early to teach them regular expressions.”
Edit: To be clear, I agree. It’s just great to be among like minded folks, here.
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.
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.
You could do what my dad did and accidently delete some of the system files, leaving it for your kid to fix.
Now I assume this thread is full of folks trying to figure out if we found our siblings Lemmy account…
Have him open it up, clean the dust, and put it back together again.
Adding to this, to have them learn about static build up and how to ground themselves before touching anything in an electronic device. PC/laptop in particular.
I was actually considering a desktop PC for this reason…
Some laptops are ok, my old clevo was 9 screws and the entire back slides off.
Some laptops are terrible, my current MSI is like 14 screws and 20 clips. For some reason the MSI just doesn’t get cleaned as often.
Need to see how bad it is. It’s an old Lenovo business computer of some sort. My own old Lenovo is just a few screws but a mazillion plastic clips.
Plastic clips are hell. At least screws tend not to break. On the plus side if it’s old and doesn’t matter, a few broken clips won’t stop it running.
Honestly give them Minecraft and let them loose on that. For a 7yo that’s a great challenge.
They already build cities in minecraft but on the playstation. Good idea to include that on the PC.
Maybe get them to use keyboard and mouse instead of a controller? Still teaches computer literacy and it’s a good control schema to get used to as a child
And when they get a handle on the base game, you can build up all kind of skills with texture packs and mods.
- learning to recognize trusted sources
- learning what a virus is, antivirus, etc
- digital art via retexturing thing.
- folder paths structure
- different file formats
- editing config files
Its also easy to make a self hosted server. Which has its own set of challenges, but would be great if they get a few friends to play.
You could install something like LMMS and let them experiment with making their own music (without needing recording equipment or learning real instruments yet).
Oh hey I didn’t know about LMMS, this is definitely going on the list!
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.
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.
