AI Making Class · Ages 7–11
בְּרֵאשִׁית
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth
What we do
Ninety minutes a week, starting with one sentence: "I want snow that drifts." The child says it aloud or types it, the AI writes it in p5.js, and the canvas on the right runs it right there. Change one number and the snow falls faster; change one line and the snow becomes stars. Across fourteen weeks every child takes home a piece they can show their grandparents, and in week fourteen they are all shown together at the Christmas showcase. We do not teach syntax and we do not run tests. A seven-year-old will not remember syntax, but they will remember that they were the one who made the snow fall.
The real design of this course
The screen a child sees is identical for all fourteen weeks; they notice nothing changing. The only thing that changes is how the AI answers, from giving freely to asking rather than answering. "Gradual" is not fourteen lesson plans here. It is one curve written into the code.
Whatever is asked for is given: full code, never a question back. First the child has to learn that speaking gets them something. A child questioned on their very first try decides the thing is slow and annoying, and quits.
It asks one question first, such as "which way should it drift?", and if the child has no answer it gives the code immediately. One question, never a follow-up. This is the most important turn in the curve, and it has to be the softest.
Still full code, but with one obvious gap the child has to fill. The gap must be visible enough that they can see what goes there and never get stuck in it.
Mostly questions now, with the AI in the passenger seat. Week twelve has no computers at all: just paper and a pencil, and you think it through before you write it.
The course
One verb a week, one passage of Scripture, one piece of work. A small showing for parents in week seven, the Christmas showcase in week fourteen.
Unit One · Weeks 1–7
Unit Two · Weeks 8–14
Weeks 7 and 14 are showcase weeks: the gallery grows from thirteen minutes to half an hour and parents come in. Week 12 runs without computers.
Child safety and compliance
Off-the-shelf AI products bar anyone under eighteen under their consumer terms. Building on the developer API is permitted for minors, but it comes with a written list of requirements, and nearly every item on that list is a feature to build rather than a form to file. So this class runs on its own platform.
No names, no email addresses, no birthdays, no parent contact details. Children sign in with a class code handed out in the room plus a seat number. The only record of which seat is which child is one paper seating chart in a volunteer's hand, collected and locked away after class.
If a name, phone number or address does turn up in what a child types, it is replaced with a placeholder before anything is sent.
The teacher can read every line of every conversation in the class, and a script sweeps them again after the session. Nothing is private between a child and the AI.
"You are talking to a computer program. It is not a person." That line sits permanently on the main screen rather than buried in settings, and it is said out loud in the first thirty seconds of week one.
To be accurate about it: this is pseudonymisation, not anonymisation. As long as that paper seating chart exists, the conversation logs are still that child's personal information in law. We will not tell parents that we hold no personal information.
The platform is live, with English, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese interfaces. Class codes are handed out by the teacher in the room.
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