Obviously you’ll want to start with absolute basics like mouse and keyboard navigation.

Beyond that? Maybe something involving a ‘treasure hunt’ to learn about navigating files and folders, renaming files, and copying vs. moving them.

Anecdotally, I’ve heard lots of kids coming up now really struggle with the concept of file systems, so it’s definitely something worth teaching early.

Really depends on what they’re into in general, but if they show interest in coding, I’d recommend Scratch. It’s a coding platform made (primarily) for kids, I got really into it once, and still tinker with it sometimes. I’d say that Scratch is easy to learn, hard to master, and fun.

Honestly give them Minecraft and let them loose on that. For a 7yo that’s a great challenge.

I’m not exactly young anymore and things have sure changed a lot since I learned my way around a computer. But here are the things I remember being fun for me back then:

• Drawing around in paint (you already have that covered)

• Creating presentations. Maybe like: Make a presentation about your favourite topic. This might involve collecting pictures either from the internet or getting them from a camera / phone on the laptop.

• Playing some games (in my case pinball, but that’s definitely not very up to date). You can learn quite a bit about clicking through menus etc from playing games.

Something else that would be important to learn early is created folders and keeping some sort of system with your files. I struggle to come up with a fun way to teach that though. Maybe someone else has a good idea?

You could do what my dad did and accidently delete some of the system files, leaving it for your kid to fix.

The reason I want my children to have access to a computer specifically, is that while TVs and phones are used to consume, computers are used to create.

Joking aside, that’s an interesting perspective. I hadnt really thought of it that way before, despite using a computer to create things almost every day.

Does your kid like minecraft? Make a game with them on the minetest/luanti engine. For a base game you can use Minetest Game or a minecraft clone like Mineclonia and follow this modding book. Have the kid make 16x16px textures in gimp and you can rtegister some modded blocks Its as easy as this:

minetest.register_node(“default:stone”, { description = S(“Stone”), tiles = {“default_stone.png”}, groups = {cracky = 3, stone = 1}, drop = “default:cobble”, legacy_mineral = true, sounds = default.node_sound_stone_defaults(), })

https://www.luanti.org/en/

https://rubenwardy.com/minetest_modding_book/en/index.html

Have you thought of using an Arduino, and let him program little things?

take a look at endless os.

https://www.endlessglobal.com/foundation/access/operating-system

specifically, the ‘full’ install with all the goodies and content ‘preinstalled’.

notes from personal experience (i use endless at home): don’t be tempted by the ability to install alongside windows and dual boot. it’s not optimal by any stretch. that configuration uses windows as the boot manager (windows has to basically boot to get to that menu), and endless and its data is then stored in a loop device (slow, especially with old hdd). do a normal install (use the ‘advanced’ option in the windows installer to make an ‘endless usb stick’ then choose the ‘full’ image). you will need a 64gb flash drive for an english language ‘full’ installer of the current (6.0.8) version.

Have him open it up, clean the dust, and put it back together again.

• Editing a text file (I guess writing a story has that covered?)

• Deleting a program (I did not know how to remove programs for the longest time as a kid… this was on windows, mind you. I figured just deleting the desktop icon was all it took. Oops.)

• Changing display resolution and scale (Really just poking around the accessibility menu in general is valuable, lots of useful stuff even for someone with good vision etc.)

gcompris.

Covers:

• keyboard, mouse, and (if appicable) touchscreen use
• geography
• science
• reading
• math
• memory

The challenge sets itself. I recommend starting there - my kids love it.

Find them a program like KidPix and just let them make stuff!

Ill steal some suggestions I liked from other commenters and add my own.

• Draw a picture
• Write a letter to someone
• Find home on the map and calculate distances to school, grandparents, friends, etc
• Make a simple song
• Design something simple using CAD software (you’d need to find something really simple to learn/use. Someone suggested a program that I assume allows you to design minecraft buildings external to minecraft)

And most importantly for me:

• Research one or several topics. Youd need to do the research yourself beforehand, as well as pick topics you know align roughly with your child’s areas of interest, but if they gain the skill of looking up information for themselves and finding the answer, pretty much anything is within their grasp IMO. Maybe set this as the first one so they can apply it for whatever further challenges you set them (extreme example but e.g. “How to create dog in blender” if you set them the task of using blender to design something). On that note, maybe set 2 distinct types of research topics - such as technical tasks and information tasks. What I mean is: “how do i install x, y, z program and use it” would be a technical task in my opinion, whereas something like “why are farmers legally forbidden from replanting seeds from their crops” would be an information task.

Best of luck!

You could install something like LMMS and let them experiment with making their own music (without needing recording equipment or learning real instruments yet).

Do you intend to include internet/web surfing, or hold back on that until later?

Search engines can be very useful, while also being awful.

But I do think teaching the kiddo how to navigate the website of your local library would be a good lesson for them.