8th grader here! I've been programming for a relatively years (maybe around 7-8, very basic stuff of course, like turtle games and scratch. Huge thanks to my Dad :) ), and this seems like a really really great thing to do.

Most people in my grade I think would be able to make it through making a calculator, but maybe with some trouble. I'm also not sure if many of them have the attention span either.

I think my favorite thing about this is how it's all text based. My school currently does an event every year called "hour of code" where you do some visual programming for about 40 minutes (class period cuts it off). It's usually the same thing every year, and it seems like people don't learn anything new at them.

I hope your students keep on learning, and you keep on teaching!