How we think about the role of AI at home with our 7th grader
I hear a lot of questions about AI from parents in our school group, basketball families, friends, and online. Is it good for kids? Is it a shortcut? What are the dangers AI can expose to our children? Should we block it or lean in?
In our family, we wonder about the AI-powered world our son is going into. What will he even be studying at university in a few years time? How do we safely use AI in our kid’s life now?
I’m not writing this as an expert. I’m writing it as a dad sharing what’s worked for us so far.
Francis showed an interest in tech early, beyond just liking the iPad. We encouraged him exploring new interests like this. He went to Code Camp a few times and got really interested in how games were built. That curiosity was the main thing. Not the platform. Not the course. Just that feeling of, “Wait, I can make something.”
One of the best tools we found for that phase was Scratch from MIT. It’s not AI. It’s block coding. But it teaches something that matters a lot later. You can have an idea, build a small version, test it, change it, and share it. Kids learn fast when they can see the result.
Around the same time, he got into graphic design. He started using Canva and Procreate for digital artwork. Then something cool happened. He began designing artwork for my company.
It has been a great experience for him learning about this great, boring mystery parents call “work.” Kids genuinely have no idea what we adults do all day. Just like kids feel great and valued helping out cooking dinner, Francis felt this way about helping out at work. It wasn’t about “being productive.” It was about being included. Being trusted with something real.
That’s the context for how AI entered our house. We use a lot of AI tools in our company now to design and develop websites and screens for software. So it became a natural progression for Francis to start exploring how tools like ChatGPT and Lovable can assist us in designing and developing what we envision a cool website or screen to look like.
The guidance I give is the same guidance I gave with Canva and Figma. These are tools to help you develop your ideas. You are still the driver.
Today, Francis uses ChatGPT to create practice quizzes for him when preparing for an upcoming test. He’s not asking it to do school for him. He’s using it to create more reps. More questions. More ways to check if he actually understands something.
He is also using Claude Code to help him develop games. For us, that feels like a natural step on the path he was already on. Code Camp to Scratch to building bigger things, with more tools available. The tool changed. The habit stayed the same. Make something. Test it. Fix it. Keep going.
These are the current examples of AI tools that we have exposed our son to. Our only rule is simple.
AI is a tool to help you achieve something. You are in control. It is not there to do your work.
That one rule sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly helpful because it removes a lot of the fog. When a kid is using AI, the risk is not always the tool itself. The risk is sliding into passive mode. Copying. Nodding along. Letting the model drive.
So we keep bringing it back to ownership.
If a model gives him code, he has to run it and see what it actually does. If it breaks, he fixes it. If it works, he should still understand what the code is doing. Not perfectly. He’s in 7th grade. But enough to explain it back in his own words.
If a model suggests a design, he has to decide what he likes and why. Does it feel clean. Does it feel cluttered. What is the idea. What is the goal. The AI is not designing for him. It is giving him options to react to. That’s a very different mental posture.
With design, AI is a tool to help you iterate and develop your concepts and vision, but you are pushing the AI to achieve your vision or objective. Francis is now learning about experiments, and how he can create a flow to run experiments and see what happens with this sort of thinking. Try a version. Compare it. Change one thing. Try again. It’s a good mindset for school too, not just design.
The fear parents feel makes sense. AI can be a mixed bag. It can be brilliant. It can be wrong. It can be confident and still be wrong. It can also expose kids to things they are not ready for if you just turn it on and walk away.
We don’t handle that with big speeches. We handle it by staying involved, especially at the start. We sit together. We keep it practical. We use it for projects that already have a clear outcome.
A quiz. A game. A design concept. A simple website idea.
When there is a clear outcome, it’s easier for a kid to stay in control. They can judge whether the tool helped or distracted. Whether it moved them closer to the goal or pulled them away from it.
One line I keep coming back to is this.
We do not treat AI as a teacher or a crutch. It is closer to a drafting table. A place to sketch and rethink.
That framing helps in our house. It lowers the temperature. It also keeps the conversation honest. Sometimes AI is genuinely useful. Sometimes it gives you junk. Sometimes it gives you something that looks great until you test it.
That’s not a reason to panic. It’s a reason to build the habit we actually want our kids to develop.
Critical thinking.
If you’re a parent reading this and you’re not sure where to start, I would start with one small thing your child already wants to do. Keep it low stakes. Sit with them the first few times. Use the tool together. Talk out loud as you go.
Then end with the question we ask at home, because it keeps the roles clear.
What did you do, and what did the AI do?
That question alone has made AI feel less scary in our house. It turns AI into something normal. A tool. Not a shortcut. Not a threat. Not magic.
Just another thing our kids will need to learn to use well.
