pmas, I like the concept. My son is only 4, so I don't think I'll try programming yet, but it is on the horizon. The first thing I thought of for a kid about that age (10) was Lego Mindstorms. It's programmable Lego's. It's a bit like robotics, but everything is run through a program.

I know the Lego sets are a bit expensive, but if you (or anyone else) would like to demo the language, there is a 3D simmulator off of the Mindstorms site. The simmulator is built with Director 8, so if you don't have the most recent Director plugin, you would have to down load it. Just follow the link to the 3D:simmulator. Their simmulator uses the exact language format that the actual Mindstorms use, so what you learn there is the 'real' thing.

If you complete all of the 'Missions' then they'll even make an online Mindstorms Certificate for you to print out. It's a way that you can sample the programming language and see if it's right for a kid (or big kids) before spending lots of money on Legos.