Does he play video games? Games are a great gateway drug to programming. If he's interested in Minecraft, I'd buy him a Java book (I've heard good things about

Does he play video games? Games are a great gateway drug to programming. If he's interested in Minecraft, I'd buy him a Java book (I've heard good things about Head First Java) and help him work through that. Once he gets the gist of Java introduce him to the Minecraft modding community. He'll have a lot of fun making mods for both himself and his friends. This strategy worked for a few people I know who are in his age group.