[lubujackson]

That is thinking like an adult, though. First, hook kids on the joy of creating something interactive THEN they can develop the rigor to improve and learn more so they can do more. But if they start by hunting for missing semicolons they aren't going to want to bother continuing. Typing and syntax aren't programming anyway, just the most common input method.

I started coding by copying BASIC programs out of magazine (the olden days) and it was excruciating as a child limited by attention and focus. I never really learned anything about why things worked or didn't until much older. Slapping things together for fun and extending things to try new ideas seems way more effective to me.