Raspberry Pi Projects to Build With Your Kids

A Raspberry Pi is basically a full computer the size of a credit card, and that makes it perfect for projects with kids. Unlike microcontrollers, the Pi has a desktop, a web browser, and runs real software. Kids can see familiar things (a screen, a mouse, files and folders) while learning what happens underneath.

Here are projects that work well at different ages, from stuff that feels like play to builds that teach real skills.

Ages 5 to 8: Screen-Based Fun

Young kids can't really wire circuits or write code yet, but they can interact with a screen and a mouse. The Pi becomes a special computer for doing things their regular tablet won't let them do.

Scratch Programming

Scratch comes pre-installed on Raspberry Pi OS, and it's the best introduction to coding for young children. They drag colorful blocks together to make characters move, play sounds, and respond to clicks. No typing required.

The Pi makes this feel different from doing Scratch on a regular computer. It's their machine. Set it up with a small monitor on their desk and it becomes their "coding computer." That sense of ownership matters more than you'd expect.

Digital Photo Frame

Load family photos onto the Pi, connect a screen, and set up a slideshow using feh or a photo frame application. Kids can pick which photos to include and help organize them into folders. It sits on a shelf and rotates through pictures.

Simple project, but kids love seeing their own photos on something they helped set up.

Sonic Pi Music Making

Sonic Pi is a code-based music tool that comes with Raspberry Pi OS. Kids type simple commands and music plays immediately. Change a number, the beat changes. Add a line, a new sound layers in.

For younger kids, you type while they tell you what to change. "Make it faster!" "Add drums!" They hear the result instantly, which keeps them engaged. Older kids in this range can start typing the commands themselves.

Ages 8 to 12: Building Real Things

This is where the Pi really shines for kids. They're old enough to follow setup instructions, navigate a desktop environment, and start connecting the digital world to the physical one.

RetroPie Gaming Console

This is the project that gets kids excited about Raspberry Pi overnight. Install RetroPie, plug in USB controllers, and you've got a retro gaming machine that plays classic games from the NES, SNES, Game Boy, and more.

Kids can help with the setup: downloading the RetroPie image, flashing the SD card (with supervision), plugging in controllers, and configuring the system. Once it's running, build a custom case together from LEGO, cardboard, or 3D printed parts.

Fair warning: this project might take over family game nights. That's not a bad thing.

Minecraft Pi Edition

Minecraft Pi comes pre-installed on Raspberry Pi OS, and it has a unique feature: you can control the game world with Python code. Build structures instantly, teleport around, and create mini-games all through simple scripts.

For a kid who already loves Minecraft, this is magic. Type a few lines and a tower appears in the game. Change the numbers and the tower gets bigger. It's coding with immediate, visual feedback inside a game they already care about. There are tons of tutorials specifically for Minecraft Pi coding.

Time-Lapse Camera

Connect the Pi Camera Module and write a simple script (or use one of the many available ones) that takes a photo every few minutes. Point it at a plant, a pet's food bowl, a LEGO build in progress, or a window overlooking the street.

After a day or two, stitch the photos into a timelapse video. Kids love seeing slow things happen fast. A bean sprout growing over a week, clouds racing across the sky, or a snowfall accumulating makes for a video they'll want to show everyone.

Digital Pet or Dashboard

Use Sense HAT (an addon board with an 8x8 LED grid, joystick, and sensors) to create a digital pet that lives on the LED display. Feed it by pressing the joystick, watch its mood change based on temperature, and keep it happy.

Alternatively, build a room dashboard that shows the temperature, humidity, and a little pixel art weather icon on the LED grid. Kids design the pixel art and decide what information to display.

Personal Website

Help your kid set up a simple website running on the Pi. It doesn't need to be on the internet (just your local network is fine). They can write about their hobbies, post drawings, or create a page for their pet. HTML basics are surprisingly easy for kids to pick up when they can see the result immediately in a browser.

This teaches the fundamentals of how websites work, and they end up with something to show friends and family.

Ages 12 and Up: Serious Builds

Teenagers want projects that feel real, not like school assignments. The Pi lets them build things that are genuinely useful or impressive to their friends.

Private Minecraft Server

Set up a Minecraft Java server on the Pi that their friends can join. They'll learn about networking, port configuration, server management, and troubleshooting when things go wrong (and they will).

Running their own game server is a status symbol for teens and teaches real system administration skills without feeling like homework.

Pi-hole Ad Blocker

Install Pi-hole and suddenly ads disappear from every device in the house. Teens who are annoyed by YouTube ads on their phone (who isn't?) will appreciate the immediate payoff. The dashboard showing thousands of blocked queries is surprisingly satisfying to watch.

This project teaches DNS, networking basics, and Linux command line in a context they actually care about.

Security Camera

A Pi with a camera module running MotionEye becomes a security camera for their room, the front porch, or wherever they want to monitor. Motion detection triggers recording, and they can check the feed from their phone.

The privacy and ethics discussion this naturally leads to is a bonus.

Weather Station

A Pi with sensors for temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed (with additional hardware), and rainfall. Log the data, build a web dashboard, and track weather patterns over weeks and months.

For science-oriented teens, this generates real data they can use for school projects. For everyone else, it's still cool to have a weather station running in the backyard that they built themselves.

Portable Hacking Lab

Set up a Pi with ethical hacking tools (Kali Linux or specific tools on Raspberry Pi OS) for learning cybersecurity. Capture the flag challenges, network scanning on your own home network, and password cracking exercises on test files.

Cybersecurity is a field teens find genuinely fascinating. Containing it to a Pi on your own network keeps it safe and legal while teaching real skills.

Making It Stick

The projects kids return to are the ones they use. A RetroPie gets played weekly. A Pi-hole runs in the background every day. A timelapse camera produces something they can share.

Don't force finished results. A half-built project that sparked curiosity is more valuable than a completed tutorial they rushed through. If your kid wanders off to explore something unexpected they found along the way, that's not a failure. That's exactly how real learning works.

Keep the Pi accessible. Leave it set up on their desk. Make it theirs. A computer they own and control is different from a family tablet with parental controls. That autonomy is half the appeal.