this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2025
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What could be the best way to introduce the world of computers to a kid, let's say of 6 years old, so that he learns to handle it like a toy and stops dreading it like some esoteric, arcane and recondite machine from some eldritch, enigmatic, cryptic and phantasmal world ?

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[–] pr06lefs@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

To me the main thing is to relate to a computer as a programmable device, not just a shiny box with pictures and videos. To that end, it might be more effective to have the computer be in command line mode rather than it just being a conduit to youtube.

I started on an apple II at a friend's house. BASIC was built right in to the command line. Our family ended up with a TRS-80 compatible which also had BASIC. Back then everything you needed to know was in the TRS-80 basic manual. I spent hours and hours making games on it.

Perhaps something like LOGO? Some simple command line environment where the knowledge required is small, and there are easily reachable payoffs for making loops and so forth.

[–] RheumatoidArthritis@mander.xyz 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Reminds me of this post, I wanted to do something like this when I have a kid, but it turns out not all children are the same, who would have thought, and mine isn't interested in how things work.

https://changelog.complete.org/archives/1448-introducing-the-command-line-at-3-years

[–] TheracAriane@thebrainbin.org -1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

@RheumatoidArthritis@mander.xyz that's lovely. Is that yours ?🤓🤓

@pr06lefs@lemmy.ml

[–] RheumatoidArthritis@mander.xyz 1 points 4 weeks ago

No no, I've found it, read it in whole and remembered it