I second the recommendation for Scratch. It is an environment where you have sprites and other objects. You program by assembling visual blocks that are eithe

I second the recommendation for Scratch. It is an environment where you have sprites and other objects. You program by assembling visual blocks that are either control structures, instruction top modify properties of objects, event triggers etc. It is good because it greatly reduces the part of learning to program where you find the syntax errors in your code. It is also a lot of fun because the result of your program is visual, animated and interactive. I introduced it to my nieces a few month ago. I installed it, opened it and told them they could use it to create games, I didn't teach or showed them anything about it. Since then, they have created a few games and started a contest with their cousins on who creates the best game. Also scratch itself is constructed in Squeak, the environment the kids used in the original article.