Build your first app this weekend: a step-by-step plan for kids.

Your kid can build a real app this weekend — one that actually installs on a phone — with you sitting right next to them. No experience needed. Here's the exact plan.

There's a moment we love at Robonamix: the first time a kid taps a button and their own app does something. It flips a switch — 'I made this.' You can give your child that moment this weekend, at your kitchen table. Here's how.

Step 0: pick your tool (60 seconds)

You don't need to install anything complicated or know how to code. For a first real app, we recommend MIT App Inventor — it's free, made by MIT, runs in a web browser, and you snap apps together from blocks instead of typing code. A simple app can be running on a real phone in under 30 minutes.

• MIT App Inventor — best for a real Android app this weekend. Drag-and-drop blocks; test live on a phone. Ages ~10–14 are the sweet spot (younger works fine with an adult).
• Scratch (MIT) — the gentlest warm-up for under-10s. It makes games and animations rather than installable apps.
• Thunkable — like App Inventor, but also builds iPhone apps if that's what you've got at home.

The project: a 5-question quiz app

Keep the first one small and personal. A five-question quiz is perfect — 'How well do you know our family?', or a quiz about whatever your kid loves: football, Minecraft, space. It uses only the simplest pieces, and it has a satisfying payoff: tap the answers, get a score, show it off. (A tip calculator or a tap-a-feeling 'mood button' app are the same difficulty if your kid prefers.)

The weekend plan, step by step

1. 01

   Sketch it on paper first

   One screen. Five questions. A score at the end. Draw the buttons before touching a computer. Keeping it small is the grown-up's main job here.

2. 02

   Set up the tools (15 min)

   Go to appinventor.mit.edu and sign in with a Google account — the adult does the sign-in, since these tools are built for 13+. Install the free 'AI2 Companion' app on the phone so you can watch the app come alive as you build.

3. 03

   Build the screen

   Drag in labels for the question and buttons for the answers. No code yet — you're just arranging pieces, like digital LEGO.

4. 04

   Add the logic with blocks

   Snap blocks together: 'when this button is clicked → add 1 to the score → show the next question.' This is the real 'aha' — and the most fun part.

5. 05

   Test on the real phone, find the bug, fix it

   Tap through it on the actual phone. Something won't work the first time — that's not failure, that's the job. Find it, fix the block, try again. Celebrate the bugs.

6. 06

   Personalise and polish

   Add colours, a title, a cheeky end message ('You're a genius!'). Swap in your kid's own questions — the moment it becomes truly theirs.

7. 07

   Show it off

   Demo it to the family. That round of applause is what makes them want to build the next one.

Where AI can help (and where you step in)

AI is a brilliant sidekick for a beginner — used the right way. Let your kid use it to brainstorm quiz questions, to explain an error message 'like I'm 11,' or to suggest colours. The rule, same as always: ask it to explain, not to do it for you.

• Great AI uses: brainstorming questions, explaining why a block won't work, naming and styling the app.
• Adult supervises: the account sign-up, installing on the phone, and making sure no personal info or photos ever go into an AI tool.

By Sunday night your kid has a real, installable app — and the feeling that they can make software bend to their idea. That feeling is the whole point. It's exactly where our Build cohort picks up, taking kids from their first app to projects they're genuinely proud of.