Ask HN: Course material to teach (adult) friends how to code?

Hey,

a couple of friends asked me if we can arrange a weekly workshop where I introduce them to the basic of coding. I like the idea but hardly know where to start. The variety of material that is out there is huge and it's hard to judge what is good and what's not.

I'm basically looking for something like a "course book" that walks our group through the basics with hands on examples etc. It should be "fun" and not strictly academic. I don't care which topic the course is about (hardware hacking? web? game dev? whatever) as long as it's well thought though :)

Thanks for any recommendations!

Thorben