keep it high-level (Score 1)

Yeah, let him tinker with a high-level language. I would think a younger person would get bored with something low-level because they couldn't do anything "useful" with it. I know it became interesting for me when I reached the point where I realized I could write something that I found useful. That was VB6 then, I'd guess some sort of web technology would be the better counterpart these days.