You might want to take a look at BlueJ

http://bluej.org/index.html

BlueJ is an integrated Java environment specifically designed for introductory teaching – great for learning general concepts in object-orientated programming, as well as solving the issues that some people have have teaching Java as a first language. And it’s free…

You might try Kids Programming Language (KPL). It encourages “hacking by example” by providing a number of graphic games among the code samples. My 9-year-old was moderately entertained, since we replaced some of our own photos and sounds for the built in ones, without having to code up the boilerplate for the environment.

It’s built on .NET, so you need Windows, but it’s otherwise free.

http://www.kidsprogramminglanguage.com

From a friend:

I’m having my son (14yrs) Carlo go through Learn to Program, by Chris Pine. http://pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/fr_ltp/index.html

He’s enjoying it, but there’s just so much more to do in the summer that he hasn’t concentrated much on it for more than a month

If you haven’t seen Ruby, it makes a great language to learn because it’s small, interpreted, and dynamic. BUT, it can grow with you as you learn more. It’s fully object oriented and therefore more consistent than something like Java where primitives and classes aren’t completely interchangeable.

I have to agree with Adam’s comment and start with something like Robot Wars — http://robocode.sourceforge.net/

Along with learning some coding skills and having fun, you will get a good base in basic logic and skills that can be applied across many languages.

Christopher

One of the most enjoyable books I have read recently is a programming introduction called Why’s Poigniant Guide to Ruby on Rails. http://poignantguide.net/ruby/chapter-1.html
It is very funny and I think a creative/smart teenager could really enjoy it. Besides, Ruby is the hot language right now.

I suggest you look at RUR(PLE)(http://rur-ple.sf.net) which is a very gentle intro to Python.

Scheme is another possibility. Three excellent sources:

(text)
http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html

(video)
http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/archive.php?seriesid=1906978270

Martin

Since Chris Pine’s book was mentioned, it’s worth noting there is an online version of the basic tutorial. It runs through some very basic concepts with code samples that show implementations of those concepts in Ruby (and starts with how to get Ruby running). Although this tutorial is an OK way to show someone what it will be like to “program” it doesn’t do a lot, necessarily, to engage the creative juices. But, it’s tough to teach “real” programming while giving projects that seem relevant, since there is so much to learn at the lower levels before you can really start to be creative — I suppose that’s the trick, though.

One way I have found to shorten the time from learning basics to getting creative is to start with the web. Learning a few basic HTML tricks and then introducing some javascript basics can be an easy way to introduce a lot of basic programming concepts but still get some instant gratification — especially when the web pages created can be put up for all of the world to see. It’s important, of course, to not just be teaching the HTML itself but focus on the javascript and what can be done with basic looping, conditionals, expressions, functions, etc.

This is such an important topic. My cousin’s kid is 15 and desperately wants to learn how to program applications for his Macintosh, but few books start from “the beginning” and even fewer seem to come at things from a perspective that engages someone in the art of code conceptually before getting into the details. On the other hand, I suppose that it’s good to learn right up-front that programming involves a lot of (at times frustrating) minutiae.

It’s also good for someone interested in programming to get some higher-order perspectives. For instance:

http://www.norvig.com/21-days.html

Or, possibly event:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Beginning…was_the_Command_Line

I

Last spring, I volunteered to teach an introductory programming class at the small private school at which my three daughters attend and my wife teaches. I chose python for three reasons:
1. I know it very well
2. No compiling
3. Syntactically easier to deal with. Although issues such as indentation and case sensitivity are still bumps in the road for the kids.

It was a qualified success. Since it was a voluntary class, half of the kids bailed when they realized it actually meant work. The remainder stayed and by the end of the semester had become proficient in using Python up to object oriented concepts.

The text I ended up using is “Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner”, Michael Dawson, ISBN 1-59863-112-8

This summer, I have employed my eldest daughter at $8/hr as a python programmer. She spent two weeks using the above mentioned text to get up to speed on python. She then used the reference “wxPython in Action”, Noel Rappin and Robin Dunn, ISBN 1-932394-62-1, to get up to speed on gui programming using wxPython.

We use subversion for source code control and Bugzilla for the enhancement/bug manager. I assign her a bug/enhancement request, she checks out the latest from subversion, does the work, tests it, and then checks it back in for review.

She will be off to university in three weeks to start her studies in Biology and I’ll miss having her in the office. She has made a slight change in her major, she has elected to pursue the Computational Biology specialty.

My middle daughter (15) is more interested in Java. The high schools have a computer science competetion in Java. The aforementioned BlueJ has proven to be a good tool. I let her pick out the text to use. She really likes it and has made good progress but I do not have the citation at hand.

My youngest daughter (12) is working through the above-mentioned python book. Since it teaches python by building games, she stays interested. It also helps that I’m paying her $10/chapter.

when I turned 12 ,over the summer I went to a camp called cybercamps at Stamford University and took a course on javascricpt and html. Cybercamps are based all over the states and it goes from ages 8 to 18. It helped me understand alot about programming and I strongly recomend it.

It may sound crazy, but I first learned to program writing VBScript macros for windows. I used a template, which is available here http://vbscript-macro-template.blogspot.com/ and I just added to it and also tried to understand everything that it did. Now, several years later I am writing my own desktop and database applications.