Ask HN: What skill/hobby can my 8 year old learn on their own?

All my 8 year old wants to do is play Roblox or watch YouTube. They taught themselves how to play Roblox, so I know they are capable of learning other things.

Can anyone recommend something like a YouTube series that starts at the very basics on how to learn something new?

Raziarazzi 4y

Why don't you introduce them to Legos since you brought up Roblox? Most hobbies, is the truthful response to this. The majority of hobbies are neither inherently challenging or even call for adulthood. games, the violin, the majority of sports, creating art, etc.

RobloxBansChild 4y

Roblox bans children using free models with hidden malicious scripts

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32303709

Yep, ROBLOX toolbox, although moderated, lets a lot of user-created content slip through the cracks. In fact, i would say even up to 20-30% of the content on the toolbox has malicious scripts or unintented behaviors.

This is an issue that Roblox has failed to give a good solution to and I suggest contune to persistently contact them about. To avoid this in the future, teach your kid to only use freemodels uploaded by ROBLOX or verified developers. (There is a small checkmark near the creators name if they are a verified devforum user. Usually devforum members are very trustworthy to upload quality content. Also show him to check the like/dislike ratio and delete any scripts if the model doesnt need any to work.)

endisneigh 4y

The honest answer to this question is most hobbies. Most hobbies are not inherently difficult or even require you to be an adult. Piano, violin, most sports, drawing, painting, etc, making games and of course coding.

pubby 4y

Since you mentioned Roblox, perhaps get them into Legos? Not just building sets, but engineering things on their own. I really enjoyed the Lego motors and robotics stuff at that age and up.

themodelplumber 4y

They could do the GDevelop.io interactive game-intro tutorial. You can try it yourself first to see what you think. It's pretty short but starts you on the basics.

https://gdevelop.io/

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