Coding for kids: real commands, free and safe

What kids learn, from Level 1 to Level 10

The course has 84 short lessons in ten levels, all free today. It begins with the computer itself: files, folders (drawers that can hold more drawers) and paths, which work like home addresses. Commands come next, then Python.

Start with Computers follow instructions, where a robot chef meets its first bug. Meet the terminal teaches dir, cd and cd .., which you can try in the box above. There, as in Windows PowerShell, ls is another name for dir.

See every lesson · Lesson 5: Meet the terminal

Is my child ready?

We suggest Level 1 from about eight or nine, with a grown-up close by for the first lesson. The guides chat like friends, but each card still needs reading.

Commands add one skill: finding keys without a long hunt. The Raspberry Pi Foundation writes that around nine or ten, children can often press keys well enough for text-based languages. Before then, blocks are a kinder start.

Signs your child is ready:

• reads a short sentence alone
• finds letters and Enter without a long search
• asks how things work, or loves puzzles
• can focus on one thing for about ten minutes

Try lesson 1 together

Blocks or typed commands: where this fits

Both teach one big idea: a computer does exactly what it is told, step by step. Scratch is free and run by the Scratch Foundation, an independent nonprofit; children snap blocks together, so there are no command names to misspell. Scratch's own help pages say it is meant for ages 8 to 16, and ScratchJr for 5 to 7.

DayOneCode is a different step, not a rival. Children spell real commands exactly and read the answers, as working coders do. Scratch fans can start Level 1 here, and a child who finds it hard can return to blocks for a while. DayOneCode is independent and not connected to Scratch.

What a lesson looks like

A lesson teaches one new idea through a short run of cards and takes five to ten minutes. The card sits on top; below it is the board, where the child tries the idea at once: a robot chef, a pretend file explorer, the terminal or a code editor.

Two kid guides, PlayBuddy and PlayType, talk the child through each card. After two slips a green ring shows where to click, and mistakes are called clues. A lesson earns one to three stars, and each level ends with a test (no hints there), a sticker and a free certificate.

Open the practice terminal · Play Command Racer

Safety and privacy

GitHub requires users to be 13 or older; Level 7 uses a pretend GitHub, so no account is needed. In the US, the COPPA Rule says sites aimed at children, or that know a user is under 13, must get verifiable parental consent before collecting that child's personal information. DayOneCode collects none.

• No account, email, chat or sign-up. Progress stays in this browser; clearing its data clears it.
• What a child types in the practice terminal never leaves the browser or reaches real files.
• On a real computer, a delete command skips the Recycle Bin, so the lessons teach looking with dir first and adding -WhatIf, which shows what would happen without doing it.
• A lesson called Stop signs shows which commands need a grown-up first.
• The AI levels use a scripted pretend helper: no AI chats with your child, nothing gets installed, and a grown-up decides about real tools.

For parents: progress and certificates

You do not need to code to help. When red text appears, read it together: it names the problem, and Red text is a clue shows how to fix it calmly.

The Parent Progress part of the Stats page shows this week's lessons, days spent learning, stars, commands learnt and the next lesson, and prints on one page. Each passed level test unlocks a free certificate, made on your device so the name never leaves it. It marks a finished level, not a qualification.

Read the guide for parents · Open Stats and Parent Progress