The thing about your childhood memories is that the actual output was not possible any other way. Paint Shop Pro banners made at home was awesome! Writing a pro

The thing about your childhood memories is that the actual output was not possible any other way. Paint Shop Pro banners made at home was awesome! Writing a program that took your age in years and returned the number of months was, in the 80s, mind-blowing. Remember, we thought that digital watches were cool! Now, you can ask Alexa how many days there are until your birthday. So writing software on a PC is a bit <meh>. Any attempt to revive that sense of wonder has to be something that seems like an achievement, which is why Lego Mindstorms keeps getting a mention. Along that vein.. - If going down the Raspberry Pi route, look at doing stuff with sensors, servo drivers, that kind of thing. The CrowPi seems to be good for that. - An Arduino educational kit with a bunch of electronics is really good - particularly if you can get it with a proper accompanying educational programme and all of the bits. Arduino is probably better than a Pi to get some introduction to embedded and electronics, because you don’t have to have an argument with your parents about whether or not systemd is a good thing. - Good projects are buying LED lighting strips for their bedrooms and finding ways to turn them on and wire them up. It has to be something that you can’t get from Amazon Prime, so LED strips that you have to cut and solder make it much cooler. - 3D printing is still amazing. Kids feel that they have produced something from nothing. The sense of wonder is definitely there. - Radio controlled electric planes or drones are good. There is a fair amount of ‘programming’ involved (of radios, ESCs, etc), and it is surprisingly more complex than you would think. Start off simple though with a kit that has some self-assembly and upgradability.