I wrote my first programs at the age of 8. They are preserved on Tom 1, a 15 minute cassette tape. It starts with copied listings from the ZX Spectrum Introduction book. But before long there is a program called ‘askage’ which I’m pretty sure is an original composition. Here’s the code in it’s entirety:
10 PRINT "How old are you?" 20 INPUT A$ 30 PRINT "Really? You look much older than that!"
Typing BASIC programs out of books – I also have fond memories of that.