Oh, and stuff like Lego Mindstorms might also be just the thing to make it happen. One of the coolest experiences I had as a kid was when I was about 8 or 9 (i

Oh, and stuff like Lego Mindstorms might also be just the thing to make it happen. One of the coolest experiences I had as a kid was when I was about 8 or 9 (it was 1987, because I recall everyone was also playing Faerie Tale Adventure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faery_Tale_Adventure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faery_Tale_Adventure) and someone introduced me to Lego LOGO. I remember just building a basic traffic light, and how incredibly EASY it was to do things. Things like that might fit into my whole idea of 'find toys that they can play with, but that encourage them to hack.'