[wizofaus]

As someone who does this regularly as a code club volunteer I'm not sure I see much useful advice there. Honestly the biggest challenge is accepting that within a group of kids the same age there'll be enormous variation in ability and motivation to pick up learning how to code. And what I have no real insight into is whether it even makes any difference in the long run (i.e. how many of the kids that do the whole course go on to make programming a significant part of their lives, or even if they don't, have it genuinely help them in some way). Still, I know I only got where I am today because my Dad sat down with me at age 9 or 10 and introduced me to programming - something obviously not all parents can do - so hopefully at least a few of these kids will get the same benefit.

[throwaway75849]

Are you able to convey some more general or high-level understanding, such as: "A procedure has a starting point, steps in sequence, possible repeated steps, and an end point." For example, one could start with trying to describe/document how to move physically in a room to get from one place to another. Then suggest, e.g. as a bridge, most computers can only work with a written descriptions of a procedure.

[wizofaus]

The code club lessons come with fairly explicit instructions that tell the kids what they need to do - mostly they only need help from the tutors when they can't find something (e.g. a particular command in whatever IDE they're using) or work out why they're not getting the expected result (usually because they've mistyped something). The super high level concept of "you have to provide explicit steps for the computer to follow" isn't really the blocker.