Kid's intro to programming: ideas? 18 years ago
Do it right thing from the beginning. I was teached basic when I was a child, and it crippled by brain for programming. I had to unlearn and forget loads of crap. I say use python, because it is clean, multiplatform, multiparadigm, has console (ie. immediate incentive to see if the thing is working and why), powerful, and has batteries included.
Once you can use python, jumping to C++, C# or Java is not that hard.