Recommendations for a coding package for 8 year old

[RosaRuocco]

Hi all,

My 8 year old son would like to learn to code. He has used Scratch at school but I'm looking for another package that is fun for kids to learn, preferably one that is free but if not something reasonably priced would be great. We have a laptop that he can use.

Many thanks for any ideas :-)

Would Python be suitable for him?

https://usborne.com/gb/coding-for-beginners-using-python-9781409599340

Ds13 is obsessed (and I mean obsessed) with coding and robot building and has been since his scratch days at 6 or 7. I would recommend a raspberry pi or bbc microbit. Ds had a raspberry pi now which is basically a mini computer that you can plug into your tv and code on, all you need is an hdmi cable, a tv and a mouse + keyboard. He even has Minecraft on it which he codes stuff in using Java, Java script and python! He started learning python at 8. Now he buys raspberry pi hats (which are basically addd ons) which he uses to build robots. I’ll ask him about the micro bit in a minute as he got that at about 7. And he started on the raspberry pi at 8. they also run coding clubs and protects for children which he used to do and have guides for parents.
Children’s resources:https://www.raspberrypi.org/learn/
Raspberry pi ds has: https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-compute-module-4
He also uses free coding challenge websites but they might be too advanced. I’ll give you more info when he comes downstairs!

The micro bit is basically a simplified raspberry pi aimed at children according to ds. he says you can’t build as good robots on it. You can you scratch or python to code on it but he thinks that the raspberry pi resources for kids are easier to follow. He says you should look on the microbit website.
microbit website:https://microbit.org/

Ds used to plug the microbit into his computer!

Thank you both for the information that you have given, I will definitely check out all of those ideas! :-)

Tynker is a games based approach to learning coding - both blocks based and text based. You can get a free trial.

https://www.tynker.com/

Does he play Roblox? My ds used Roblox studio to teach himself coding. You can get tutorial books, but he used YouTube videos. He also uses Unity.