Maybe my https://fabien.benetou.fr/Content/BuildingAComputer could help.

I also answered your question in https://lemmy.ml/post/38363131/21987482 but it's intertwined.

I wouldn't "teach" them what a computer is, I would co-explore with them instead.

Get or build a PC instead of getting a console. Introduce to kid to games. After a while, say "you know, computers can do other stuff besides play games" and introduce the kid to that as well.

Tell them to keep their personal life completely separate from their online life. NO personal info shared online.

Recommendation

I think the Raspberry Pi has a suit of prepackaged games and things like that, which you could use. Give your Raspberry Pi a good casing, and it will be indestructible.

Tangent

I would still warn them from the dangers of the modern digital world, in the sense of surveillance and censorship of social media, what is posted on the internet stays there forever, how proprietary software tricks the user and is oftentimes malware (Gmail, Windows, etc.) and things like that.

I mean, computers are cool, but the mainstream computer world is filled with so much nonsense or outright malice. And if I had a child, I wouldn't want them to be harmed by that. Like, I don't want my child to be indoctrinated into the sexist manosphere, just because the Instagram Algo said so and will do literally anything to keep them on the platform as long as possible. Software and computers are cool, but there's so much vile and genuinely dangerous stuff even for adults. For a child it must be hard to navigate. If you say, for example, that Apple devices literally scan every single picture on your device and send the result to Apple, you'll sound like a crazed tin foil hat lunatic. But this is quite literally what happens with MediaAnalysisD. In the USA, a young family got harassed by police because they sent a picture of their sick child to their doctor via Gmail.

Edit: typo.

Start with building a very cheap computer with your kid.

You can buy parts for cheap or sometimes get them for free from e-waste processing places. You can do the screws to the case, but let the kid put the parts in place while you explain what they do.

Parts are easy to handle, just make sure to not damage the components as they look cute and are a bit malleable, but put too much pressure you can destroy it (not sure a kid will be strong enough for that).

It is as easy as building Lego, or putting a cartridge on an old console. This will help to make the computer less scary.

Make sure that you can do it yourself and test the parts first before involving your kid, so they do not get too frustrated if it fails.

This will cover hardware.

You can also help them to install the OS.

After, make a list of the programs you want your kid to be aware of: calculator, place to write text, anything you think it will be useful. Take some time to explain them, and do some exercises with each - let's write a letter to a friend, etc.. Let them play around with it without judgment. (remove things you don't want them to use).

If you want to give the child some background in how software works, Logo was very popular with kids at the school.

Logo is this little turtle that you give orders, similar to imperative programming language used in most softwares.

Change colour to green, walk forward 50 steps.

And the turtle would draw a green line on the screen.

There are plenty of options for software that provides that, here is an option https://apps.kde.org/kturtle/

And, of course, try to break these in multiple days, building a PC, installing OS and playing with programs can be overwhelming for some kids.

We started with Win10 e-waste, and started with Ubuntu Mate. Java Minecraft was the trick. Got them motivated, reading, doing math. Then wanting to install mods taught them about the filesystem and such. Age 4 and 6, they both got on board and are now top tier computer users. Giving them access to gimp, inkscape, and tinkercad got them using it for art and 3d modelling to get involved in the 3d printer, and they use blockbench to make custom models...which you configure with json in a resource pack. They're now 9 and 11 and are motivated to play on computers.

Keep it disconnected from the internet is the first thing I thought of.

Old computer no wifi, as a kid I just explored the computer menus and played the few offline games, drew in paint, by like 10 I had swapped to adobe flash off some piraxy yt videos, maybe load it up with software that could be fun for kids to use

Scratch is a good one, might be too young, but learn to think like a coder while playing around

The BBC Microbit was designed for exactly this scenario: https://microbit.org/

If you want them to have a more desktop-like environment, the Raspberry Pi has kid-specific projects: https://www.raspberrypi.org/learn/

Or you can get a Pi Kano kit and it has everything you need: https://www.kano.me/

Minecraft (Java) with Mods

https://eater.net/8bit

His videos are a great learning resources too

6 years old is a bit young because at that age, they need a reason to engage with anything.

Games might be a place to start, but a kid will think "tablet is easier". Same with music or videos.

Art is another place to start, but even then, why computers?

You need to wait until they have an idea or goal they want to accomplish, then maybe use it as an illustrative tool. In most cases for kids though, a PC is unnecessary with phones and tablets being so prevalent with an easier to grasp UI/UX.

When we got our first computer it was a Win 95 machine, with a copy of Encarta, Atlas. I don’t remember what word processor, but it wasn’t a full office suite.

It was cool. We did lots of typing and using ms paint.

Then we got a shareware cd. Hundreds of pretty useless games + 4 or 5 big ones like doom and transport tycoon, but it changed everything. Every day we’d try a new one. We’d mess around in DOS trying to get those ones working.

Then 3D Movie Maker - the full version. It all really started to come alive.

Then a microphone. Just messing around with sound recorder was like when we used to make “funny” tape recordings of ourselves, but without the hassle of tape.

These are the basic concepts of what I think made computers fun.

I guess the direction I’ll probably go shortly is the old AMD 2400g mini itx I have laying around. Put on an opensuse slowroll. We have a microphone handy. We have 900 games on our GOG account. I have an old intuos drawing tablet that might work. Add some of those education flatpaks - solariums and stuff. I think you can definitely do a modern version of what we had back in the 90s when computing was more than watching youtube.

I think kids find ways to play and tinker with stuff. I'd give them an office suite to practice writing letters or advertisements or whatever they come up with, something to draw... maybe not Gimp because that's not easy to use... I've seen people give their kids an instant messenger which connects to their dad/mom so they're incentivised to type something. And then of course we have games. From Supertux, PlanetPenguin Racer, Tuxkart to commercial games. There are some kids games in the repos. Kartoffelknülch, drawing programs. Programming languages to learn coding with puzzle pieces and blocks or animate Turtles. There are educational games, at least my local library has some and I played some as a kid. But maybe at least try to balance the gaming. There's so much more interesting stuff in computers. And then of course you could put some content into some directories, I think unrestricted internet access isn't great at 6yo and the computer will be empty without, so idk. Maybe put some templates there, ideas what to draw, music or audiobooks or whatever fits the purpose...

I installed gcompris for my 5 year old. FOSS childrens educational software and games from KDE.

I also bought her a cheap, pink, 65% keyboard and mouse set that make it "her computer".

There's also a few free resources to teach typing once your kid can read and write enough to understand what they're typing. I've heard good things about Typing.com and typingclub.com but we're not ready to start typing yet so I haven't used them.

Also, if my kids ask a question that's a little tricky to explain I'll show them how I use a computer (or phone) to look for answers. One of the few practical applications I've ever found for AI is "can you explain [abstract concept] in a way that a 5 year old can understand". This isn't explicitly teaching computer skills, but showing them a practical use case and how to dig into their curiosity.

To me the main thing is to relate to a computer as a programmable device, not just a shiny box with pictures and videos. To that end, it might be more effective to have the computer be in command line mode rather than it just being a conduit to youtube.

I started on an apple II at a friend's house. BASIC was built right in to the command line. Our family ended up with a TRS-80 compatible which also had BASIC. Back then everything you needed to know was in the TRS-80 basic manual. I spent hours and hours making games on it.

Perhaps something like LOGO? Some simple command line environment where the knowledge required is small, and there are easily reachable payoffs for making loops and so forth.

an apple 2 or c64 and some type-in-the-program magazines

desktop computer

Well I got my first PC when I was 5 (2005), and I just learnt to use the PC by myself (because my parents didn't understand it) over several years.

When I will eventually have a child, these would be my steps to encourage them to use a PC:

• Tell them that they can play paid games for free and show them how to do it
• Give general internet usage tips
• Convince them that a PC worths way more than a console, because you can play way more games on it, and you can also do a bunch more things with it

I don't think a 5 year old will understand a PC's usefullnes for sure, but their receptors will definitely be turned on after hearing FREE GAMES.

Just some idea: archive.org (and ruffle) for old flash games