My 2-Year-Old Shipped His First Game. I’m Not Teaching Him to Code.

What happened when we gave our toddler AI tools, and why the future of programming is toddler talk.

My 2-year-old knows what he likes. Since before his first birthday, he’s been excited by construction vehicles, cars and trucks, and anything else with an engine that goes. He watches videos of trucks and trains, and any game in GCompris with a vehicle in it (there are many) becomes a fast favorite.

So when we told him that he could make his own game, with any kind of vehicle he wanted, it was an unsurprising jump to:

“Make a red car game!”

I explained it like this:

“You type what you want here, and the computer helper will try to make it for you.”

His eyes lit up. “Make a red car game! Tell the computer to make a red car game RIGHT NOW.”

Why I’m Not Teaching My Kid to Code

I’ve been in software development for a decade. I’ve written more functions, loops, and algorithms than I could possibly count. And yet I’m convinced that teaching my toddler how to write a proper if…then would be a complete waste of time (and not because he wouldn’t get it—he’s already an expert at “If you finish your meatball, then you can have more blueberries.”).

The point is that he’s not going to grow up in the world I learned to code in. That world is gone. Learning Python will be akin to learning plumbing. Does it make you more knowledgable and self-sufficient to know how the water gets to the faucet and how to fix a broken pipe? Yes. But 99% of the time your focus is on what you’re doing with the water.

LLMs (Large Language Models—or, colloquially, “AI”) are already impressive. By the time my son is working-age, they’ll be unrecognizable. Well, more accurately, they’ll be infinitely recognizable—invisibly embedded into every bit of technology we use, from our wristwatches to our televisions. (For future readers: wristwatches are devices we used to wear on our wrists to tell the time, and televisions are… oh, nevermind.)

If you want your kids to thrive with tomorrow’s technology, please don’t teach them how to code.

Teach them how to build.

My Toddler, the Prompt Engineer

My son knows his letters but we’re still working on keyboard skills, so we helped him type it in.

make a browser based red car game

Visual Studio Code lit up, green lines filling the screen, things happening. He watched excitedly. “Can we play it now? Is the computer done yet?”

Eight minutes later, we opened the browser window and there it was: a little red car, trundling down the road on a sunny day, jumping over traffic cones and obstacles at the press of the space bar. Then,

“Can we make it a digger? Make a firetruck game. Make an AMBULANCE game!”

(He’s two, after all.)

My little prompt engineer has been busy: you can see all the games we’ve made so far at madladstudios.com.

Forget Syntax. This is What Actually Matters.

My son thinks we made a little red car game that day, but what we achieved was much bigger than that.

He used to think computers were things that showed him other people's stuff. YouTube videos of excavators. Educational games someone else designed. Now, the computer is his collaborator. When he has an idea, he knows he can build it. The computer changed from a tool for consumption to a tool for creation.

But more importantly, he's learning foundational skills for the type of programming that will be most relevant in his lifetime: natural language programming.

I watched him figure out that specificity matters. "Make a fire truck game," left a lot up to the model to assume, but, "make a fire truck game where it sprays water and puts out fires," got him just the game he wanted. When the red car's short jumps landed it on top of obstacles more often than over them, "make it easier for kids," got him bigger, loftier jumps that kept the game frustration-free.

He's discovering that creation can be a conversation. You say what you want, you see what you get, you refine, you try again. It's the same iterative process I use as a developer, minus all the unnatural syntax that gets in the way.

The tools have fundamentally changed. When any child who can describe an idea can also build it, we need to rethink what we're teaching them.

Some parents want to teach their kids Python. We're teaching ours to think in systems and communicate clearly. To break down big ideas into smaller pieces. To iterate based on results. To imagine boldly and describe precisely. To build with timeless skills in tomorrow's world.

Your Toddler Can Ship Software Today

Want to try this with your own kids?

You'll need a computer, an AI assistant like the Cline extension in VS Code, and a kid with ideas. The setup takes minutes—after that, you're limited only by naptime and snack breaks. (If you want specifics, comment and I'll help you out!)

Start with what your kid already loves. Let them describe it in their own words. Type exactly what they say—toddler grammar and all. Watch what happens. The moment they realize their ideas can become real things is when everything changes.

My son still asks for the red car game. But now he also asks, "What should we make today?"

I can't think of a better question to teach a kid to ask.

Have you tried building with AI and your kids? What did you discover? Reply and let me know—my toddler and I read every response (though he's mostly interested in whether you made any vehicle games).