Buying children a computer
Why not travel back in time?
I recently thought about when and what kind of computer you would buy a seven year old kid, which wishfully wants to get his own first computer.
Children in this age already make heavy use of tablets and smartphones of their parents - I have even seen kids in primary school with their own devices.
When I was seven years old in 1987 I got my first computer. An Amstrad CPC with a BASIC interpreter. I taught myself how to actually do something with this thing by working through the example code in the BASIC handbook which came with it and this was my way into programming.
So why not buy for example again an old Amstrad or an Apple II with Integer BASIC for your kids on Ebay?
The great thing about those things is: They are cheap. And they provide of course a 100% safe environment for kids as there is not internet or any other software available for them, which might concern parents.
The only thing they will see - until they create something on their own - is a blinking cursors awaiting input.
So if your children are really into computers and want to learn more about them - why don’t teach them a bit BASIC and let them learn literally a few basics about computers and programming in general, before you make the next step.
Even if kids are used to a totally different level of interaction with computers, a totally different level of software, games etc. I think it is still a very joyful and great experience to be able to write some lines of code and make a computer do something - even if it is a 25 year old maschine.
