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What fun, non-expensive, things can we get the kids for Christmas?
They’ve been doing stuff at school with the sliding letter digital displays like you get in the doctors and stuff online to make basic games.
The whole thing is a bit beyond this simple canoe instructor. Help please!
What does non-expensive look like?
What do they have for writing code on (e.g. an actual PC, a raspberry Pi, a tablet etc)?
Do you know what they have been using to write code so far?
What age? What experience - doing stuff with scrolling displays could be a few hours or several years depending on how they are doing it!
Do they actually like the coding or the external stuff (electronics)?
Default answer seems to be a raspberry pi. My 14 year old still messes around with his even though he now has a full blown pc. Think it's currently setup as a web server.
Yep. You’ve lost me. We have a cheapo laptop and they have kindle tablets.
Sorry, this ain’t me thing. I can talk you through a capistrano flip in exchange...(solo and duel)
No more than £40. Hard limit.
Am doing coding at my son's school using micro:bits... the kids love them. They are a bit easier to get to grips with than Raspberry Pi or Arduino as they have buttons and leds built in.
They are about £15 each I think.
btw them a playstation game or something, it's christmas, not homework! 😆
lister - they can actually write code on the laptop with nothing more than a free download (e.g. its likely they are using python at school). Personally I'd pop in to see the teacher, (s)he'll probably be delighted someone is showing interest. There is sense in getting the same platform as the school but even if you decide not to we'd be better able to guide you if we knew what they were using. (Its like if I said my kids were learning Kayaking in Canoes at school - and I was thinking about buying them a boat!)
jeffl is right the "go to" response is raspberry pi (my suggestion for your budget and experience would be to go Pi Zero WH - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-Pi-Zero-pre-soldered-header/dp/B078YXBKXM?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duc08-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B078YXBKXM). You'd then still need an SD card, an HDMI lead to plug it in to the TV (assuming you have one), a case (or some lego) and phone charger and either to know what you are doing or a keyboard, mouse and some usb hub to follow the online tutorials with. Half the learning/fun is in understanding and solving those issues, but it can also be very off putting especially for adults without a clue. If you've a bunch of old (but still USB) keyboards, mice etc up the loft or in a cupboard at work it can be a cheap option - but otherwise the costs can build up.
The whole thing is a bit beyond this simple canoe instructor.
As poly says it is highly variable. In canoe (well kayak) terms would be like asking about the best boat/paddle for the job. Answer being depends on exactly what you want it to do. Playboat, sea or whitewater and even then there might be a teeny weeny bit of personal opinion involved.
Computing, particularly for kids, is going through a renewed good period. It had started getting a tad expensive and specialist but the Pi seems to have rewoken the market for start from, close to, scratch and for reasonable prices as well.
How old are they?
For something more physical and simpler, Lego Boost is a scratch-like version of the Minestorm stuff, so programmable with drag-and-drop blocks and you can make robots etc.
As much as I love the rpi, and have a few in my drawer somewhere, that level of programming isn't for everyone. If you just want to learn eg Python, any laptop can do that.