Get an entry level programming job and work on a computer engineering or software engineering masters degree. Or try for an MBA.

Getting into IT can be a one way trip. It is hard to get back to programming/cs aspects after you get labeled as a network tech or help desk person. See previous threads on topic here on /.

My experience was working for several years while struggling to get an MS. I did work IT/support (got stuck) and it was only happy serendipity (and good connections) that got me back into software development. Getting my masters was more for the resume build than learning. I did learn, but the MS was a lot more important when it came to finding contracts and working DARPA projects.

Alice and StoryTelling Alice
"Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience."
Thank you Randy Pauch. We miss you.

Or try
Myro using Microsoft Robotics Studio

or Pyro which was the non-MS precursor to Myro... program bots in Python with either real bots or simulation.

Either way, the graphical environments and real bots give kids a great way to SEE and TOUCH their results, which is more how they learn. You can cover all the important software constructs (variables, loops, events, data structs, etc) and avoid some of the abstract conceptualization required in more conventional languages/applications. They will learn the concepts through doing & using them. Then once they are hooked, they can dig into other languages.

Works great for middle school & college kids.... Pyro's got years of track record teaching intro to AI - to liberal arts majors!