A nice simple language like Python would be best, and no, 8 is not too young, especially if the kid shows interest. The kid should be given lots of sample code,

A nice simple language like Python would be best, and no, 8 is not too young, especially if the kid shows interest. The kid should be given lots of sample code, and encouraged to modify/extend it. I think there's plenty of substance in text-based programming to hold his/her interest, but one of the robot programming toolkits could be used to help keep the kid motivated.