I've recently been introducing my son to programming, and it was so much more difficult just to choose the best starting language. When I started in the mid to

I've recently been introducing my son to programming, and it was so much more difficult just to choose the best starting language. When I started in the mid to late 80's as a child, we had a Commodore 128 and it was Basic or nothing. I also remember typing in those program listings, getting annoyed they didn't work, realising I'd transcribed something wrong, then when it was working making changes. We then moved onto a 386 and I gravitated towards QBasic (and later TurboBasic because you could use the mouse and compile to an exe) With my son, I ended up searching high and low, umming and ahhing, and in the end I found the spiritual successor to those computer magazines with program listings in a Python for Kids book that takes them step-by-step (a little like the Commodore manual did) introducing concepts and eventually getting you to build a game. I think a lot of the wonder about computers that seems to have waned is because we're all older and not looking at it through the same lens, true, computers are far more ubiquitous now, but learning that you can tell it what to do and are only limited by your imagination is still incredibly powerful to a child.