How Kids Can Start Coding for Free: A Parent’s Guide by Age

Free ways for a child to start coding, by age: ScratchJr and screen-free games at 5 to 7, Scratch and Code Club at 8 to 12, then real commands and Python.

The short answer, by age

Your child can start coding without spending a penny, at almost any age from five. The right first step depends less on the birthday than on two skills: how well they read, and how easily they find the keys.

Age (roughly)	Free first step	What it builds
5 to 7	ScratchJr on a tablet, plus screen-free “be the robot” games	Steps in order, cause and effect
8 to 12	Scratch in a web browser, a Code Club, or Experience CS at school	Loops, decisions, making things
About 9 or 10 and up, once the keys feel easy	Real commands in a practice terminal, then Python	Exact instructions, files, reading errors
13 and up	More Python, a web page of their own, Git save points	Real projects on a real computer

Treat these as starting points, not rules. The Raspberry Pi Foundation, the charity behind Code Club, suggests simple programmable toys from about four, Scratch from about six, and text-based languages at around nine or ten, when their skill with the keys is often good enough. A keen seven-year-old may race ahead, and a twelve-year-old who has never coded can begin at whichever row fits.

Ages 5 to 7: tablets and games without a screen

At this age, coding means putting steps in the right order and seeing what happens. Two free routes work well.

ScratchJr. The Scratch Help Center says it is intended for children aged 5 to 7, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation names it as a free tool for visual programming, used on a tablet or phone.
Screen-free games, often called unplugged coding. They cost nothing and teach the biggest idea in all of coding: a computer does exactly what it is told, not what you meant.

Try “be the robot” tonight. Your child gives you instructions for making a jam sandwich, one at a time, and you follow each one exactly as said. “Put the jam on the bread”, with the lid still on the jar, makes a lovely mess and a first bug. Then swap: you give the steps and your child is the robot.

DayOneCode is written for slightly older children, but a six- or seven-year-old who reads well can try Computers follow instructions beside you: a robot chef that needs exact steps too.

Ages 8 to 12: Scratch, Code Club and classroom units

This is the age for Scratch. Its Help Center says Scratch is intended for 8 to 16-year-olds, and that for most people the choice between ScratchJr and Scratch comes down to reading level and comfort with the keys. Scratch runs in a computer’s web browser and is free for everyone. It was developed at the MIT Media Lab in 2007 and moved in 2019 to the Scratch Foundation, an independent nonprofit.

Two more free options are worth knowing:

Code Club. The clubs are free and open to all school-aged young people, and Code Club is part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, an independent charity. The grown-ups who run a club need no coding experience. Look for one near you on the Code Club site, or ask whether your school has one.
Experience CS. A free set of Scratch-based units from the Raspberry Pi Foundation for students aged 8 to 14, available to teachers and their classes. If your child’s school used Google CS First, ask the teacher about it.

When to move to typed code

Blocks take away the hardest early chore: spelling. Typed code brings it back, and that is the real jump. Most children are ready when three things are true:

They can read a one-line instruction without help.
Letters, numbers, the space bar and Enter come quickly to their fingers.
They want more than blocks can give, such as saving their own files or knowing what the computer is really doing.

For many children that happens around nine or ten, which matches the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s advice. If the keys still feel slow, stay with Scratch for a while; it is not a step back. Commands are short, so a few minutes a day builds speed quietly.

Real commands in a terminal

Many courses jump from blocks straight to a programming language. DayOneCode starts one step earlier, with the computer itself: what a file is, how a folder is a drawer that can hold more drawers, and how a path works like a home address. Then your child talks to the computer in the terminal, the text window where you ask for exactly what you want: talking to the waiter instead of pointing at the menu.

Level 1 is free, has seven short lessons of five to ten minutes each, and needs no account, email or download. Every command runs in a pretend terminal inside the web page, so nothing your child types can reach your real files. Try five commands here, one at a time.

A pretend Windows PowerShell on a pretend disk. Type a command and press Enter. Nothing here touches your computer.

⌨️ Practice terminal

Try:

dir lists what is in a folder. cd images walks into the images folder and cd .. walks back up one. cat notes.txt shows what a file says, and python hello.py runs a program that prints Hello. They are real commands, spelt exactly as coders write them in PowerShell on Windows. What is a terminal? explains the rest for grown-ups.

Python, free and in the browser

Python is a good next step: for children ready for text, the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s age guide points to its own Introduction to Python path. Python.org calls the language friendly and easy to learn, and it is open source and free to use. Nothing needs installing to begin: DayOneCode’s Python levels run in a small Python box inside the page. Hello, Python! starts with a single print line, and by Guess the Number your child has written a real game with a random number.

When the box feels small, a grown-up can install Python on the family computer from python.org; do that step together. Python for kids covers what comes next.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

Many lists of free coding sites for kids are now out of date. Three changes matter:

Google CS First has closed. Google turned it down on 30 June 2025 and deleted the CS First data it held. Its help page points teachers and students to Experience CS from the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Code.org is now CodeAI. The nonprofit changed its name on 2 June 2026 and says it will keep providing free curriculum, tools and professional learning resources.
The Hour of Code is now the Hour of AI. Its organisers call it an evolution of the Hour of Code, run by CodeAI and partners, with activities for everyone from pre-readers to adults. It ties in with Computer Science Education Week each December, but the activities are available all year, and the best-loved Hour of Code activities are still there.

The Hour of AI is about AI literacy, so look at each activity before your child starts: who made it, what age it is for, and whether it asks anyone to sign in.

Keeping it safe: accounts, privacy and AI

Free sites can still collect things. Before your child starts anywhere, ask: does it need an account, does it ask a child for an email or a real name, and can strangers chat with them?

Accounts. In the US, the COPPA rule says sites and apps aimed at children under 13 must, with a few exceptions, get verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from them. A sign-up is a grown-up decision, so make it together.
AI tools. Read the age rule in a tool’s terms before a child uses it. Anthropic’s Consumer Terms, for example, say people using Claude must be at least 18, or older where the local age to consent is higher.
DayOneCode. No account, no email, no chat and no adverts in the lessons. Progress stays in your browser. The AI levels (8 to 10) use a scripted pretend helper, so no real AI talks to your child.

Keep the computer in a shared room for the first few weeks, and sit in on the first lesson. To see where the course ends up, What is an AI coding agent? explains it for grown-ups. DayOneCode is independent and is not connected with Scratch, the Raspberry Pi Foundation, CodeAI, Google, the Python Software Foundation or Anthropic.

A free four-week plan

This plan suits a child of about 8 to 12 who has done a little Scratch, or none at all. Aim for one lesson of about ten minutes on most days. Each link opens the lesson, and none needs an account.

Week	Lessons	By the end, your child can
1	Computers follow instructions, Everything is a file, Folders keep things tidy, and one “be the robot” game	Explain why a computer needs exact steps, and read a file’s ending like the label on a lunchbox
2	Paths: every file has an address, Meet the terminal, Tidy and find, then the Level 1 test	Find any file by its path and run first commands; Level 1 done
3	Where am I?, Look around, Walk around, Build things, and a few laps of Command Racer	Move between folders and make new ones by command
4	Write and read, Speed tricks, The treasure mission, then the Level 2 test	Write and read files, use the Tab key and the Up arrow; Level 2 done

Each level ends with a test, a sticker and a free certificate. After four weeks, open the Stats page together: its Parent Progress part shows the lessons, stars and commands learnt, and prints on one page. Then carry on with Level 3, or jump to Hello, Python! if your child is itching to make a game.

Try it on DayOneCode

Lesson 1: Computers follow instructions
Program a robot chef and hunt your first bug. The first of seven free Level 1 lessons, with no account.
Lesson 5: Meet the terminal
First real commands, dir, cd and cd .., in a pretend terminal that cannot touch your files.
Python for kids
Write Python in a box inside the page, from a first print line to Guess the Number. No install, no sign-up.
For parents
What your child learns level by level, how the pretend computer keeps them safe, and ways to help.

Questions and answers

Is there a free way for kids to learn coding?

Yes, several. ScratchJr and Scratch are free block-based tools, Code Clubs are free to join, and schools can use Experience CS at no cost. For real commands and Python, DayOneCode is free and needs no account. Be wary of “free” classes that are only a trial lesson for a paid course.

At what age should a child start coding?

There is no single right age. Screen-free sequencing games and ScratchJr suit children of 5 to 7, and Scratch suits most children from about 8. Text-based code usually works best from around nine or ten, once a child reads well and finds the keys without a long search.

Can a 10-year-old start coding?

Yes, and ten is a good age to begin. A ten-year-old can start with Scratch, or go straight to typed commands and Python if they read comfortably. DayOneCode’s Level 1 starts from zero, with seven short lessons about files, folders and the terminal, and nothing to set up.

How do I teach my child to code if I cannot code myself?

You do not have to teach the code. Choose a free course, do the first lesson side by side, then let your child explain each step to you: what did the computer do, and why? Keep sessions to about ten minutes on most days, and read any red error text together.

Are Google’s free coding classes for kids still running?

No. Google CS First was turned down on 30 June 2025, and the CS First data Google held was deleted. Its help page now points to Experience CS, free Scratch-based units for students aged 8 to 14, built by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with Google’s support. Ask your child’s school whether it uses them.

Does my child need an account to start coding?

Not always. DayOneCode needs no account, email or download, and progress stays in your browser. Other sites may ask for a sign-up to save work. In the US, sites aimed at children under 13 must, with a few exceptions, get a parent’s verifiable consent before collecting personal information, so make any sign-up together.

Sources

The facts on this page were checked against these pages (14 November 2026):

How can my child start coding for free? A guide by age, from 5 to 12