For a fun and gratifying first programming experience consider the visual programming environment Scratch: http://scratch.mit.edu/ http://scratch.mit.edu/ I ha

For a fun and gratifying first programming experience consider the visual programming environment Scratch: http://scratch.mit.edu/ http://scratch.mit.edu/ I haven't found a more vibrant and impressive code-sharing community and it's a simple install. Python would be a great first language, possibly using pygame for some early game-making gratification. Etoys is also an impressively flexible visual programming environment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etoys_(programming_language) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etoys_(programming_language) but its visual interface has a much higher learning curve than Scratch. Kids can explore the examples and figure it out, though, and it seems to have a higher ceiling.