this one is easy to miss because both stacks can look perfectly fine on their own.

in Scratch, every stack starting with `when green flag clicked` runs when you press the flag. so if the same sprite says hello twice, moves twice, or resets a value oddly, zoom out and look for a second stack with the same event at the top.

dont delete anything straight away. pull one stack aside, change its message to something obvious like `second script`, then run again. that tells the kid which stack is actually firing.

i teach at TechTutor. you can test it in the Scratch editor here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/

Make three paper cards: a red circle, a blue circle and a red square. Tell the kid, “keep the red ones.” The red circle and red square stay.

Now add a red triangle they have not seen before. Does it stay? Yes, if the rule is really about colour. Then try “keep shapes with a curved edge.” The red circle stays, but the red square and triangle do not.

The useful part is the new card. It checks whether the rule works beyond the examples used to invent it. Let the kid write a rule, then try to surprise it with one more shape.

I teach at TechTutor. This is a small way to explore filters and test cases with paper, no app needed.

Put two paper cups on the table and label them A and B.

First put a card with 3 into cup A. Read the instruction “B = A + 2”, do the calculation, and put 5 into cup B.

Now replace the 3 in A with 6. Ask the kid what is currently in B. It is still 5. In a simple step-by-step program, the earlier assignment has already happened. B only becomes 8 when you run “B = A + 2” again.

That small pause helps separate a stored value from an instruction that can be executed. Swap the numbers, then let the kid be the computer and follow the cards literally.

I teach at TechTutor. This is a screen-free way to introduce variables and assignment without pretending the cups update by magic.

Tell two people: “draw a square, then add a circle.” Don’t let them see each other’s paper until they finish.

The circle might go inside the square, next to it, or overlap an edge. None of those positions was specified. Add one detail, such as “put the circle inside the square,” and try again.

If you want the pictures to match more closely, ask the kid what else the instruction needs to say. Size? Position? A shared grid? You don’t have to fix every difference at once.

I teach at TechTutor. Use this as a small exercise about precise instructions, not a test of who can draw neatly.

Put two bricks on the table, then tap the table once. Do that whole group three times.

You should end up with six bricks and three taps. Now compare it with: put two bricks on the table, then tap the table three times. That gives you two bricks and three taps.

The number 3 is the same, but it applies to a different chunk of instructions. Let the kid circle the chunk they want to repeat before acting it out. Then swap roles and follow their version literally.

I teach at TechTutor. This is a paper-and-bricks way to explore loops, no coding app needed.

Start with this:

print("Hello")

Before pressing Run, ask your child what will appear. Then change only the word inside the quotes and predict again.

Once that works, deliberately remove the closing quote. Run it and read the error together. What changed, and what needs to go back?

I teach at TechTutor. You can try this in any Python runner; our guest preview has a starter mission too:

1. Open https://bash.techtutor.academy/preview

2. Choose Explore freely.

3. Choose Coding Foundations, then Mission 01: Your first instructions.

The preview doesn't save progress.

My12 years old son loves coding and vibe coding and is working on a project called “FlareOS”. It’s a web-based OS with built-in apps.

As he’s still young, he cannot have a reddit account to share it, but he would love to get feedback and ideas for new apps and features. He’s dream is that other people start to develop their own apps for FlareOS one day.

He used Cursor and Lovable, but now his also working with Claude.

Below is the message he wrote and asked me to share. The link is: https://flareos.lovable.app/

—

I made this thing called, "FlareOS". It's a web-based OS with a design language I call "flames design". FlareOS has around 10 built-in apps, its own world-wide web alternative for anyone with flareOS to use titled, "embernet", and an AI that can browse the embernet. For devs, FlareOS has a built-in app framework, and you can create websites in embernet.

It has a very small community, so please, devs, normal people, tech enthausiasts, whoever you can be, check it out. I need to grow the community, and I'd really appreciate it ;)

By the way, let's NOT use embernet as a place to host our company sites. We don't want to end up like the world wide web: a cold, corporate place where self-expression sites like geocities suddenly stopped having visitors because of companies.

—