[zachgalant]

You should really check out CodeHS -- http://codehs.com

It's focused on providing a strong fundamental background to absolute beginners, so they learn not just how to write a program but how to write a good program. We teach good programming style, variable and function naming, commenting your code.

Part of the curriculum is reading other peoples' code and critiquing it. Students learn to think like a programmer, not just follow instructions.

Right now, most of our content is a bit more basic than your recommended path to mastery, but it's all the steps to get you there. You can't underestimate the difficulty of understanding the difference between if and while for a beginner. Or the idea of parameters and return values, things that people with experience often take for granted.

also, feel free to email me if you want to learn more. [e-mail]

[zachlatta]

I'm a bit biased, as I've worked with the guys behind CodeHS (tell Jeremy hi!), but I can vouch that it is one of, if not the the best, way to start learning to program.

The emphasis placed on control flow throughout the course has been extremely helpful to beginners. Also, the integration of proper programming style into lessons makes sure beginners write quality code, something I see missing from many courses.

I like to think of CodeHS as a gateway drug into programming. Once someone completes the first few series of lessons, taking on larger libraries is much easier.