Have mentored engineers and also coaching some students online. My approach is to relate PYTHON and programming paradigm with real world[aligning his curriculum math with python is interesting!]. I think the biggest disconnect comes due to the fact, that python or any programming language follows strict laws of mathematics and logic, and we think in terms of images but ideas need to align with logic which your system allows.
let me know, if this makes sense. for successfully using python -
A) Understand the IDLE [ CONDA, Colab]
1-you need clarity around concepts of classes, functions, datatypes.
2- For loops. while loop,
3- control statements [ if else]
4- Exception Handling [Try Catch]
If your kid is good in mathematics, it will be helpful. I think ultimately kid must be able to convert ideas to some program