Alice is a tool built by CMU researchers for exactly the purpose you want -- to gently introduce your kid to programming and making it seem fun and easy without scaring him. http://www.alice.org/index.php?page=what_is_alice/what_is_alice Alice was the brainchild of famed researcher late Prof.Randy Pausch and is used in thousands of educational institutes and schools. In Alice the programer builds up a story by programming and your child wont even know that he is coding until its too late ;-)