make_something

Things to make

Short projects you can finish at home on your own. Every one shows you what you are going to end up with before it asks you to type anything.

These are written for the person doing them, not for a parent reading over their shoulder. You do not need a class to start, you do not need to buy anything, and you do not need to be good at maths. You need about ten minutes and either a computer or, for most of these, just the phone in your pocket.

read this first Works on a phone

You do not need a computer to start

Everyone assumes you need a laptop before you can code. You do not. Your phone browser runs real Python with nothing installed and nothing paid for.

Make it

play it Works on a phone

Get the robot home

Tap blocks together to steer a robot past the rocks to the star. Five levels, and the last one cannot be solved without learning what an if block does.

Make it

try it now Works on a phone

Mountain maker

Move a slider and watch both the picture and the Python change together. Nothing to install and nothing to type. Then copy the code it wrote and run it for real.

Make it

start here No internet needed

Make the computer draw a mountain

Ten lines that draw a mountain out of stars. Then you change one number and it becomes enormous, without writing any more code.

Make it

next Needs internet

Make Python fetch you a real dog photo

Your program goes off to another website, finds a photo of a real dog and saves it into your folder. A different dog every time. This is also how you find out what an API is.

Make it

after that Needs an assistant

Ask AI to change your code, then check it really worked

Get five dogs instead of one without writing the change yourself. Then learn the check that catches code which says it worked when it did not.

Make it

for_the_adult_in_the_room

These pages are free and there is nothing to sign up for. They exist because a child who wants to try coding should be able to, tonight, without anyone buying a course first. If it turns out they love it and you then want to look at classes, our guides for parents are a separate thing and we take no money from the schools listed.