[techx2501]

Don't hold back! They remind me a lot of me and my brother. At the ripe old age of 7 and 5, we started programming with MicroWorlds, and spent hours teaching ourselves from the manual so we could make simple 8-bit DOS games.

Once a month or so, we would also make a trip to the local thrift store and we would each get to pick out 1 electronic gadget (<$5 unless it was particularly compelling) to take apart. I hacked up everything from keyboards to handbag-sized cell phones. Exploring programming and electronics as a kid was a big part of my success as an adult. For a lot of people, technology is scary/magical, but it doesn't have to be that way.

[mtrimpe]

My first 'real' program was drawing a house in LOGO when I just turned four. I still remember my dad explaining me the concept of angles because I really wanted to draw a roof.

When I tried to rewrite that program 25 years later and downloaded a LOGO interpreter for OS-X; when it came to clearing the screen somewhere out of the vague recesses of my muscle memory the 'CLEAR' command just popped out.

It was still magical.

[mark_integerdsv]

Props for LOGO.

I learned that my ten year old was only learning consumption patterns for computers at school.

Web searching and a tiny bit of Office basically.

Something had to change and I've found that several kids are keen enough on LOGO even in our day and age to come to a Saturday morning LOGO lesson in the computer lab.

...even some of the grown ups have started bragging about shapes they built or clever uses of the REPEAT command.

It's just a magically simple analogue for all things code.