Advice I often give is to give them what you had growing up (or if you want, what you dreamed of having back then). The idea being that you'll have an intimate

Advice I often give is to give them what you had growing up (or if you want, what you dreamed of having back then). The idea being that you'll have an intimate understanding of it and know when/when not to guide. Also gives a reference point for where their future devices came from, which builds understanding and makes them seem less like a magic box. Combine that later with giving them access to what you use professionally. I graduated to Photoshop, Final Cut, etc. later via my dad. Re. graphics/animation: Depending on their age, an old copy of Kid Pix could be very entertaining. Good introduction to the concept of professional tools (Affinity, Photoshop, etc.) but a much more engaging UI (sound, skeuomorphism). Lets you add basic interactivity also. What I haven't found a modern alternative to, but would recommend (somehow) would be Flash. It was a unique intersection between graphics, animation, and programming. I hacked together trading cards, games, stop-motion, websites, and animation with it and use principles I learned there every day. Possibly the simplest equivalent today I've encountered would be Tumult Hype (note: Mac only :/). Nowhere near the same ecosystem, but it has a similar animation workflow (timeline, keyframing, nested animations, etc.). It lacks some of the additional artistic emphasis that made Flash so iconic and is really more of a straight web animation tool, but I suspect a kid could make more imaginative animations with it that I do. :)