This is really cool. I'd say drop the drag and drop; he's 12, not 4. I started programming in BASIC around 9 and C at 14, didn't speak a word of English, and d

This is really cool. I'd say drop the drag and drop; he's 12, not 4. I started programming in BASIC around 9 and C at 14, didn't speak a word of English, and didn't have internet or access to books. How I worked was: Suppose I wanted to print something, I'd look up the verb in a dictionary for "imprimer" and would find "print", then would look that up in the help. Then would copy the example code given and run it, and then I'd change stuff and see how it'd affect the functionning of code (errors? go back to dictionary, etc). And based on the consequences of my actions, I'd deduce the role of what I changed. I wrote a program that gave you information on a country you'd enter (population, area, capital city).. You had to type the country in capital letters because I didn't know how to do it otherwise. He's 12 years old and he's got the internet and you! It's also a great time to improve his English. The biggest favor you'd do for him, whether you choose a graphical or another approach, is to encourage him and make him stick and never drop the ball. For me, the biggest mistake was going on and off. If I had kept at it, I'd be at least moderately good instead of sucking. You can also show him the work you are doing and make him understand that it's really not that hard to get started and hopefully, at some point, he'll understand the power of this: I can make this computer do mostly anything I want! And he'll be hooked. TL;DR: Whatever you do, make the priority for him to stick and understand the power at his fingertips.