Another idea for an easy first project to get your teeth sunk in to an 8052 design and its coding is to implement a TIMED RELAY function. Build a circuit that can drive a relay on for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 seconds. Have a 3 position switch to select the time of the relay pulse. Finally have a push button you detect that will start the relay pulse at the selected time. Do this design two ways. In the first version just have the main program generate the timing.
In the second version try to implement timer interrupt that manages the time delay via a count of N-Interrupt times.

Have Fun
Mike Karas