[seangp]

My son started learning to code at 6 years old. We started by playing fun games at bedtime where he would give me instructions for various things such as how to leave his bedroom and I would follow them literally - resulting in my bashing into walls, falling over etc. He soon got the hang of being accurate with his instructions. He then moved on to building simple games using Scratch but got bored with that pretty quickly. He started to spend a lot of time playing Minecraft and would watch YouTube videos showing him how to make redstone circuits etc. He wanted to make his own games and so he gave Unity a try but the learning material wasn’t quite accessible to a (then) 8 year old. About a year ago he started playing Roblox and within weeks had downloaded Roblox Studio (Roblox’s development environment) and had begun making his own games. I think Minecraft helped him a lot with his ability to create 3D environments within Roblox but they also have a library of free, pre-rigged and pre-scripted models which removes any barrier to entry. He started making his first games entirely out of free models. He learned to script in Lua by watching other kids Roblox scripting videos on YouTube. He’s just turned 10 now and has a firm grasp of fundamental programming concepts, released several games and has begun releasing his own coding tutorials on YouTube. He still has a lot to learn but he’s intrinsically motivated.

[giantg2]

"We started by playing fun games at bedtime where he would give me instructions for various things such as how to leave his bedroom and I would follow them literally - resulting in my bashing into walls, falling over etc. He soon got the hang of being accurate with his instructions."

Very nice

[puzzlepursuer]

Great job, it's obvious you're happy to see him succeed and sounds like he's enjoying the process.

A reminder to think about spending time playing basketball or soccer with him and enrolling him in a league for a couple years, in case you aren't and if he isn't already playing. Two or three youth seasons participating in a team sport that involves constant decision making will benefit him in the future, even if he decides he doesn't like the sport.