My kids have been using MIT's free Scratch Programming language for a few years now. It's cute. It has click and drop pieces of code that look like Lego. You can make loops, if/then statements and perform many other standard programming tricks. The kids have each made several movies and games now.
Maybe it is the way they spend hours absorbed in it that I started to think of it as a game rather than an educational tool (a line which is pretty grey at the best of times). Then my DH came home with a survey from work (written by a software developer) that asked participants to tick the languages they used regularly. Along with C, C++, Fortran etc., Scratch was listed. Was this a joke or was it for real? Neither my DH or the kids has yet found a limit as to what they can use it for, so perhaps it is "for real".
Either way, having taken another look at it, I have to say that it is quite impressive and much more sophisticated than it would seem at first glance, yet it is simple enough that my kids could manage to use it from the time they were about six years old.
Here's the link for a free download and tutorial: http://scratch.mit.edu/
We have been incredibly fortunate to have started our homeschooling quest in a time when there is so much available, usually for free, on the internet. One other goldmine of educational resources has been (and will continue to be for a while here!) open courseware. MIT offers some, and so do many other universities worldwide. Here's a huge list of links to courses offered: http://www.collegedegree.com/library/college-life/the_ultimate_guide_to_using_open_courseware
These plus many more links are also available on my Educational Resources page.
I hope you enjoy!
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