AI-Dima · Kids Roadmap

The Kids Tech Roadmap — Indonesia.

Age 7 to 18 · Indonesia edition. From Scratch at 7 to Apple Developer Academy at 18.

70%

of job skills will change by 2030.

AI literacy leads the list. Your kid can start building it at 7.

LinkedIn 2026 Skills on the Rise.

Inside this roadmap

›Age-by-age learning path from 7 to 18
›5 free tools to start today (most with no account needed)
›The honest 'AI as a tool, not teacher' rule
›Apple Developer Academy @ BINUS — the full scholarship endpoint
›Local Jakarta options + free online alternatives

Ages 7–10

Foundation: logic, not syntax.

Goal: build a first game. Prove that code is creative, not scary.

Scratch (MIT)

FREE

Visual drag-and-drop coding by MIT. No syntax, pure logic and creativity. Designed for 8+ but works at 6 with a parent alongside.

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Code.org — Hour of Code

FREE

One-hour guided coding activities. No account needed, instant results. Great for the very first session.

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Minecraft Education

FREE TRIAL

Block-based coding inside Minecraft. For kids already in the game — the natural pathway to Python at 12.

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Honest note30 min/week is enough at this age. Consistency beats intensity. Stop before they get bored.

Ages 10–12

AI literacy + early exposure.

Goal: the child understands what an LLM is and how to ask it a good question.

Claude.ai

FREE

With parental guidance: teach the child to ask structured questions, notice when AI is wrong, and fact-check answers. This is the AI literacy skill that matters most.

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Khan Academy + Khanmigo

FREE

Khan Academy's AI tutor. The child learns HOW to use an AI tutor — to ask follow-up questions, push back, verify — not just what it teaches.

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Scratch (original projects)

FREE

At 10–12, move from guided tutorials to original projects. Remixing others' work and sharing publicly builds intrinsic motivation that no curriculum can.

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Honest noteThe AI tool rule at this age: always ask 'is this true?'. Build the habit of checking. A child who learns to verify AI output at 11 is far ahead of one who doesn't at 18.

Ages 12–14

Real code, fun context.

Goal: one shipped Python project. Something that runs. Something the child chose to build.

Python + Minecraft (Dicoding)

FREE

Dicoding has Python tracks in Bahasa Indonesia. Connecting Python to Minecraft keeps engagement high — they already care about the outcome.

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HTML + CSS — first website

FREE

MDN's free curriculum. First milestone: their own portfolio page. Something to show friends, something to be proud of. Ownership > grades.

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Replit

FREE

Browser-based IDE — no installation friction. Write Python in the browser, share with a link, see it run instantly. Removes every excuse not to start.

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Honest noteDon't push toward competitive programming at this age unless the child asks. Building something that exists and works beats solving puzzles that don't.

Ages 14–16

Modern tools, real workflow.

Goal: one published project with a live link. Portfolio-ready by 16.

Cursor (AI IDE)

FREE TIER

The AI-native IDE used by professional developers. Learning to direct AI-generated code — to read it, test it, debug it — is more valuable than typing every line by hand.

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Prompt Engineering for Developers

FREE

DeepLearning.AI's free short course. Accessible at 14. This is the skill separating people who use AI from people who direct it.

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Hugging Face account

FREE

Create a profile, deploy a first AI demo (Spaces), get familiar with the ecosystem. Hugging Face profiles are checked by university programs and employers — a public portfolio that's not GitHub.

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Honest noteThe GitHub habit: one commit per week minimum. Commit history = proof of work. University admissions and employers check it. Start now, not at 17.

Ages 16–18

Portfolio + scholarship paths.

Goal: 3–5 real projects on GitHub, university application ready, first scholarship applied for.

GitHub portfolio (3–5 projects)

FREE

READMEs, live links, demo videos. Each project solves a problem the student cares about — not textbook exercises. Proof > certificates at this stage.

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Real AI projects (RAG, agents)

FREE

RAG chatbots, AI agents, multimodal apps. A motivated 16-year-old can build production-quality AI tools using DeepLearning.AI courses + free Claude/OpenAI API tiers.

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Apple Developer Academy @ BINUS

SCHOLARSHIP

Full scholarship + MacBook + iPhone. 1-year intensive at BINUS Jakarta. Covers iOS development, design thinking, and entrepreneurship. The best free path in Indonesia. Application opens annually — check the site.

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Honest noteOther scholarship paths worth knowing: BINUS pre-college, ITB, NUS (Singapore), NTU (Singapore). Each has merit awards available for Indonesian students with strong GitHub portfolios.

The honest truth

AI is a tool. Not a teacher.

Your kid still needs to read books. Struggle with math. Debug code line by line. Get frustrated and fix it. The children who win in 2030 use AI on top of fundamentals — not instead of them.

AI as a shortcut teaches dependence. AI as an amplifier — used after the student has wrestled with the problem themselves — teaches leverage. The difference is everything.

Local options · Jakarta

Where to learn in person.

IT STEP Academy Jakarta

Ages 6–18 · In-person · Jakarta

MY SCHOOL

Python with Minecraft, game development, web front-end. Structured in-person program for kids in Jakarta.

I run this branch. Full transparency — I include it because the curriculum is genuinely good, not as a sales pitch. Visit and judge the program for yourself.

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Apple Developer Academy @ BINUS

Ages 18+ · Full scholarship

FREE

Full scholarship + MacBook + iPhone. 1-year program at BINUS Jakarta. The best free endpoint for Indonesian developers.

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Dicoding

All ages · Online · Bahasa Indonesia

FREE

Free and paid Indonesian-language tech courses. The AI Engineer learning path is Google-backed and well-structured.

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Coding Bee · KodeKiddo · Timedoor

Ages 7–15 · Paid · Jakarta

PAID

Established kids coding bootcamps in Jakarta. Good for structured accountability when self-directed learning stalls.

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Start where they are.

Pick the age block that matches your child. Start with one tool. One session per week. The habit matters more than the tool. The curiosity matters more than the speed.

Get the printable PDF

Comment KIDS on Instagram for the one-page printable version. Good for the fridge. Good for parent-teacher conversations.

@ai_dimaz on Instagram →dima@zapleo.com

AI-delivered. Human-directed. I run IT STEP Academy Jakarta (disclosure above). This roadmap is not a sales pitch — it exists because I get the same questions from parents every week, and I'd rather answer them once, properly.