ESP8266 Standalone Use: Minimum Hardware and OS Requirements for WiFi Communication

Good Morning all,
This is my first post and I'm very exited to be here.
I recently started to get my son involved with the raspberry pi board and I would like to continue to help as much as I can but I have a question for you. If I want to use that wireless chip without the Pi what other piece of equipment would I need? I've seen companies use their own boards and I always wonder how the board is interacting with the wireless device since it needs to understand IPv4 protocols at the very least. 
would I need a smaller board such the raspberry pi that has an OS to get it to talk to the WiFi chip or is there a minimum requirement I should be looking into such as another board that understand AT commands only?
Does it needs an OS in order to talk to the chip? 
I would really appreciate if you explain or provide me with any references so I could learn/read more about this topic. 
Thank You in advance for reading my post.


-Chip

Chip,The ESP8266 runs its own IP stack, so that work is already done for you. It is made to be used "standalone" - so there's no requirement for an external computer such as the Pi. To get started, take a look at the widely available NodeMCU boards - they're low-cost and contain a built-in USB connection for easy programming. This lets you load your code onto the on-board flash, using a software API (not AT commands) to control the onboard LEDs, WiFi, and any other peripherals you connect. There are a few choices of software environment for this. I'd strongly recommend the MicroPython approach for teaching young coders! Take a look at the links below for some additional information.Cheers,- David
MicroPython on ESP8266
https://learn.adafruit.com/building-and-running-micropython-on-the-esp8266

NodeMCUhttp://www.nodemcu.com/index_en.html

Espruinohttps://www.espruino.com/

Oh wow! this is very nice.Thank you so much for the info!
-Chips