Rather than just coding, which can be pretty abstract for kids, I introduced my (almost) 11-yo son to the Arduino. The interface is pretty simple to explain for

Rather than just coding, which can be pretty abstract for kids, I introduced my (almost) 11-yo son to the Arduino. The interface is pretty simple to explain for kids of that age - you have 2 places to put your code - the setup() and loop(), and the results are concrete - an led blinks, a motor turns, a car moves forward, etc. My son "got" Arduino programming easier than the graphical programming languages, but that might just be him. He was also introduced to QBASIC at school (a year later), and he loves it. There are no INTs to declare, etc. Just your program. And graphics, sound, etc. is so easy to program.