I have three kids at home 6, 9 and 12. The eldest has a far bit of schoolwork in term time but the second could do with some things to do and is kinda good at anything involving learning but is a bit bored at the moment. The have played with Scratch in the past but I'm looking for some alternatives, ideally something that might lead them on to better stuff in the future. If there is a clear route through it as opposed to "here's the manual" it would be more likely to stick. Fwiw I learned to code as a kid with BBC basic and later worked for years in VBA/SQL development and have hacked up some bad HTML and PHP, but I'm a novice on python and java which seems to be the new world. Any suggestions that you've used of know of first hand?
Freebies: Code the Classics and Build Your Own First-Person Shooter in Unity. They'd be more aimed at the older two, but they're great for learning Python and Unity respectively. The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner's Guide 3rd Edition. Ahem. Not freebies: Mission Python. Reviewed it a while back, it's a neat book building up to a playable game.
Got a microbit for the 9yo which she loved. She has already got the habit of looking at the javascript after throwing the blocks together.
If you have a Switch then there's FUZE, which is a BASIC geared towards kids. It comes with loads of assets so you can start making rudimentary games and so on quickly. You can download the manual from their website and see if it looks suitable. Disclaimer: I haven't tried it myself yet, but will give it a bash as soon as I have time. That'll probably be post-lockdown, mind you!
