It's well known that there's a continually growing, global need for high tech labor.  And as the world's residents become further dependent on technology, the technological environment itself is increasingly demanding humanity to become ever more flexible for adapting to new technologies.  One small contribution that each of us can make - specifically those of us with kids - is to help prepare the next generation for gaining confidence in technology and learning a bit about our craft in the process.

Accordingly, I've been trying to find a suitable means of teaching my 7-year old daughter how to gain an interest in programming...she's been hooked on what I found.  Scratch is a free, visual programming "language" and IDE that makes it very simple to create animations, simple games, and art and to share them in on the web.  It was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at MIT Media Lab.  It has a very easy to follow Getting Started guide for young ones and can be used to create some relatively sophisticated programs.

If nothing else, it's a good way to geek out with your kids.

Enjoy!
Billy McCafferty