I'd say the greatest key to motivating someone to learn and keep learning is to have a feeling they're accomplishing something. Small projects that make it clea

I'd say the greatest key to motivating someone to learn and keep learning is to have a feeling they're accomplishing something. Small projects that make it clear the person is getting somewhere and finished in a short amount of time might be the key to that. As we program longer and do much more complex projects, we tend to lose how impressive even small things are, such as building a menu on the command line or taking input from a few html boxes and spitting out a reply. To someone just learning the basics, all of that seems quite amazing I have found while tutoring a friend that was starting out programming. Others have pointed out that making projects that are of interest to the person learning is also a key. I think combining both of those is perhaps the best solution.