It's a very easy game when you know what you're doing, but yeah if you have no items and don't know how to get started making them then the monsters that spawn in dark areas will probably fuck you up lol

They also made the game significantly harder in 2016, pretty much requiring you not only to figure out how to craft items, but also how to get a steady supply of food. Again, still an easy game, just one you need a bit of knowledge to get started in.

Ask your kid to teach you how to make a sword (from the beginning, he might just show you the crafting recipe and that wouldn't be very helpful, you'll wanna know how to gather the materials and make the crafting table too) and farm and cook potatoes or bread and that should pretty much be the baseline required to play the game, at that point it really opens up and you can start exploring and teaching yourself.

(If your kid is really young and doesn't know how to do all that either, then let me know and I'll give you the minimal-spoiler starter tutorial :D)