Programming and Shaping Minds?
noss: At that age I had started programming BASIC on my C64 a year earlier, copying the examples from a book targeted at adults and written in a language I did not know (english). [Only slightly bragging, but here is what i want to say:]The teaching material does not have to be all that pedagogical, but the motivation make the computer do something needs to be there.In this day and age, I think that the absolutely best environment is to make dynamic web pages.  By just outputting a few rows of text you can see a result page and imagine having it online for friends to use. One can also create dynamic pictures.I used my knowledge of BASIC around that time to write training programs in multiplication, addition, and when English classes started, word translations. That is, I made semi-realistic solutions to problems I had, and the resulting program was used by me (and also friends once you could compete in score points).