take a look at endless os.

https://www.endlessglobal.com/foundation/access/operating-system

specifically, the ‘full’ install with all the goodies and content ‘preinstalled’.

notes from personal experience (i use endless at home): don’t be tempted by the ability to install alongside windows and dual boot. it’s not optimal by any stretch. that configuration uses windows as the boot manager (windows has to basically boot to get to that menu), and endless and its data is then stored in a loop device (slow, especially with old hdd). do a normal install (use the ‘advanced’ option in the windows installer to make an ‘endless usb stick’ then choose the ‘full’ image). you will need a 64gb flash drive for an english language ‘full’ installer of the current (6.0.8) version.

Have you thought of using an Arduino, and let him program little things?

I learnt as a 5 year old typing stuff into DOS because I wanted to play games on it.

What do your kids want to do at the computer? That drive will make them motivated learners.

My kids have Raspberry Pi 400s (which I ought to upgrade to 500s, as they complain about them being too slow).

I think those specifically are a good choice for this use-case because they come with a big (physical, paper!) book that teaches kids all sorts of stuff that can be done with them.

Have him open it up, clean the dust, and put it back together again.

You could do what my dad did and accidently delete some of the system files, leaving it for your kid to fix.

The reason I want my children to have access to a computer specifically, is that while TVs and phones are used to consume, computers are used to create.

Joking aside, that’s an interesting perspective. I hadnt really thought of it that way before, despite using a computer to create things almost every day.

Obviously you’ll want to start with absolute basics like mouse and keyboard navigation.

Beyond that? Maybe something involving a ‘treasure hunt’ to learn about navigating files and folders, renaming files, and copying vs. moving them.

Anecdotally, I’ve heard lots of kids coming up now really struggle with the concept of file systems, so it’s definitely something worth teaching early.

My kid was all in on Tux Paint for a good while.

He eventually settled in to make cars and cats, but at first he just enjoyed making abstract art with all the colors and paintbrushes.

You can make an image of the / drive so it’s easier to restore if they break the system.

I you can slowly teach them to use the command line, if they can read fluently using the cli shouldn’t be that hard. You can teach them the basic commands, and teach them to install a program with apt.

Also, you said write a short story? The teach them vim (or emacs if you prefer that).

You can install vmpk (or some other music keyboard emulation program) so they can play some music. And if they get more interested get them LMMS and later ardour + advanced stuff.

Krita is a super nice program to draw, and colour (tho no fun without a drawing tablet), maybe you can teach them vectorial drawing on inkscape. And if they like it then install Blender and go 3D.

An arduino would pair well and do some pretty cool stuff, maybe motivate them towards coding. They make some Lego compatible projects too. Maybe also typing challenge games or offline only minecraft

Does your kid like minecraft? Make a game with them on the minetest/luanti engine. For a base game you can use Minetest Game or a minecraft clone like Mineclonia and follow this modding book. Have the kid make 16x16px textures in gimp and you can rtegister some modded blocks Its as easy as this:

minetest.register_node(“default:stone”, { description = S(“Stone”), tiles = {“default_stone.png”}, groups = {cracky = 3, stone = 1}, drop = “default:cobble”, legacy_mineral = true, sounds = default.node_sound_stone_defaults(), })

https://www.luanti.org/en/

https://rubenwardy.com/minetest_modding_book/en/index.html

Let them play colobot. It’s very cool game (it has a rocket, alien spiders, and robots), and it lets you program your robots. Besides programming, they can also learn reading documentation.

• Editing a text file (I guess writing a story has that covered?)

• Deleting a program (I did not know how to remove programs for the longest time as a kid… this was on windows, mind you. I figured just deleting the desktop icon was all it took. Oops.)

• Changing display resolution and scale (Really just poking around the accessibility menu in general is valuable, lots of useful stuff even for someone with good vision etc.)

I’m not exactly young anymore and things have sure changed a lot since I learned my way around a computer. But here are the things I remember being fun for me back then:

• Drawing around in paint (you already have that covered)

• Creating presentations. Maybe like: Make a presentation about your favourite topic. This might involve collecting pictures either from the internet or getting them from a camera / phone on the laptop.

• Playing some games (in my case pinball, but that’s definitely not very up to date). You can learn quite a bit about clicking through menus etc from playing games.

Something else that would be important to learn early is created folders and keeping some sort of system with your files. I struggle to come up with a fun way to teach that though. Maybe someone else has a good idea?

I’m not sure what’s it’s like now, but at that age I was just starting to get into visual programming. Using blocks to program. Started getting into Lego robotics. All my computer skills started there.

With Linux I would start them on basic terminal commands. Cat a file. Edit a file. Navigate. Etc.