I'm a 19 year old comp sci major going into my sophomore year in college. I took 3 years of computer courses at my high school that really helped me develop programming skills. I learned C++ first, then Java; I thought Java was easier to program on, but you might want to expose C++ to him first. Here is the syllabus for my C++ high school class: http://teacher.uscsd.k12.pa.us/ollendyke//ProgLang1.html [k12.pa.us] And my Java: http://teacher.uscsd.k12.pa.us/ollendyke//ProgLang2.html [k12.pa.us] Each section explains the topic pretty well, then gives 3-5 medium difficulty programs to write. This taught me up to OOP and got me very well prepared for college. As far as sparking his interest and getting him to want to program, I did it for the career choice. Everyone needs programmers and I want to see the dollar signs. You can also spark his hacker interest by hacking a cell phone, ipod, or xbox if he has one. Install linux on it, mod it, etc. Hope this helped.