I don't think when discussing young kids the main motivator should be to teach them to program. Rather, as a parent I like to expose my kids to as many differen

I don't think when discussing young kids the main motivator should be to teach them to program. Rather, as a parent I like to expose my kids to as many different ways of thinking and expressing one self as possible. "I remember one of the coolest things about the apple II was that you could 'poke' the right memory address and get the speaker to click. " My 8 year old enjoys drawing characters in Scratch and then programming game and movement logic for them. Personally, I fail to see which experience has more objective value. Personal experiences such as you describe are mystical in the way that there is no rational way to share them with anyone else or make them understand it unless they've felt it themselves. I don't really think there is a "wrong way" to have fun with a computer. I think it's incorrect to view kids programming environments as a part of vocational programming curriculum. Rather, they are yet one more platform where kids can be creative and enjoy building things for themselves, like with Legos.