Use lots of Analogons, provide a big picture (Score 1)

Hi, its a great question you are asking... I think its a big art to teach stuff to children, because one must really understand it to do so in order to know that a simplification is not too simple. Do you know the great books of David Macaulay (like "the way things work")? He has a great approach, explaining everything using mammouths :-) What I would do is: - Ask them, if they have used computers before - Try to explain that a computer is something simple (maybe use an abacus as abstraction) - Show them some nice program to give them somthing to try themselves (Logo or even better Squeak) I think generally its important to be enthusiastic and humourous about the topic! Cheers, Dani