At 7 I was banging on an electric typewriter and red LED calculator. My mother could explain how pressing a typewriter key triggered a typebar and left an impression with ribbon. Fascinating. She couldn't explain how the calculator worked, but she let me punch the numbers in when she was balancing the checkbook and how it all added up. Magical.
A few years later and I was typing in c64 basic programs from the back of magazines. Then it was I showing my father how to schedule and print little league baseball games, and my mother how to track her bowling tournament results.
Thanks for sharing your story. It is amazing what kids can do with just a bit of a nudge.
At 10 or 11 years old, I made my Mom a random number generator for picking Lotto numbers. I knew it wouldn't make a difference to the odds, but it made her happy...
As I was reading OP's story I flashbacked to my first introduction to technology at that age. I'm most grateful for them raising me intellectually curious, reading to me at a young age, and to never say no when I asked them to buy me a book.
My father (84 now) is up to date with technology, he gets the mechanics and can perform his tasks (windows, android, roku) but I don't think he has a conceptual model of how any of this works. It was fascinating to me growing up, if you gave him a budget for buying a computer he could spec out the best "bang for your buck" knowing 8GB RAM > 4GB RAM and a 1Gig HD is > 500 MB HD without actually understanding what the components were. He was never interested in that level of detail, just show him how to click and do it.
A few years later and I was typing in c64 basic programs from the back of magazines. Then it was I showing my father how to schedule and print little league baseball games, and my mother how to track her bowling tournament results.
Thanks for sharing your story. It is amazing what kids can do with just a bit of a nudge.