The question is often debated these days: We no longer have computers with good old BASIC, which many folks learned programming from. What's available now for kids to learn programming?
This is a pretty interesting solution, and it's targeted for ages 8 and up. Scratch from MIT.
Programs are built with little tiles (like Lego Blocks) and include features like sound, visual graphics effects, animation.
I've imagined something like this and they seem to have pulled it off extremely well! It's pretty fun, too!
Oh, and if you were familiar with Logo in the 70s, this is very reminiscent.