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There is a great resource here http://csunplugged.org/ with a whole heap of exercises to explain computer science concepts in an 'unplugged' environment to kids.

There's actually a website dedicated to this exact topic of teaching computer science to kids: http://csunplugged.org/videos

If this is your first time presenting to this class, keep it super simple. For instance, put up the picture of a dinosaur and make it growl/shake. And just use the time to make a connection with the kids. If you want to teach them something useful, talk to the teacher about a follow up session, and take a look at the following materials for inspiration: http://csunplugged.org/.

There are a lot of curriculum materials that are being used by home schoolers to teach programming and software development at the Microsoft Beginner Developer Learning Center Kid's Corner http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/bb308754.aspx Everything from videos to whole courses for differing ages. You can also find some good curriculum based on Small Basic at http://smallbasic.com/ (see the wiki and tutorial) and http://www.teachingkidsprogramming.org/ I also recommend the CS Unplugged curriculum at http://csunplugged.org/

For the younger crowd, I can highly recommend Computer Science Unplugged. It is a great introduction to the fundamentals of computer science - algorithmic basics, information coding and entropy, finite state automata, and a bunch of other good stuff. Interestingly, the entire course is done without a computer. It has exposition, exercises, and games that reinforce those fundamentals.

It's about 10 hours of coursework, it's free, and it's geared toward the 8-12 year old crowd. My 7-year old didn't have any troubles with it, and was always hungry for more. The novelty of teaching computer science without touching a computer is also compelling.

Now, if anyone can recommend some good coursework on introduction to programming and basic algorithms for the 8-10 set, I'd appreciate it. I haven't found any good educational materials for Scratch (it's all pretty ad-hoc and amateurish), and I think Alice is a bit much for sit-you-down-and-start-programming. Any personal experiences?

I have done 3D computer graphics at the CS Masters level, and I think it's worth pointing out that this stuff is *hard*. You need to have excellent skills in mathematics and physics (lots of matrices and vectors) and a strong foundation in computing. I applaud anyone who studies this stuff properly through the motivation of gaming, but as many other posters have said, don't make game development your only option.

Meanwhile, I'm getting the boy into computing by introducing the important concepts without a computer via http://csunplugged.org/

I'm a big fan of CS Unplugged. It's generally aimed at a slightly older age range, I think, but you can probably adapt some of their demos quite easily.

Should have used Logo/Scheme/Lisp. You'll spend more time teaching syntax rather than programming/logic.

Take a look at

CompuSci without Computers

How To Design Programs

Computer Science Unplugged is a curriculum out there designed to teach students computing principles, and they recommend a game like that. The game works like this: one person is playing the role of "programmer" and the rest of the class will try to follow their instructions. The goal is to duplicate a drawing that only the programmer can see.

The first game(s) the rules are easy -- the "computer" can ask questions and the class can see what the machine is doing. Then you introduce restrictions. The computer player will be restricted from speaking, for example. At the end you have the programmer obscured from the class, only able to speak to their classmates to describe a picture. As programmers we rarely get the "full picture" so to speak, and have to give precise instructions that both we and the computer understand identically.

The most important challenge to this as a teacher is selecting appropriate examples. They have a few, but I'd also add: a formula, with exponents, parenthesis, variables and subscripts. A pixel art smilely face ala CSS testing. A curve. A full binary tree with 4 levels. A small section of text, with bold, underline, paragraphs and bulletpoints. These are harder, but high school students can do it and it illustrates both rendering techniques and the need for language. For highschool students, I'd suggest spending a class on this, and then asking them to either write a paper (1 page tops) on the significance, or if the class is fast and small enough, hold a discussion.

Computer Science Unplugged is a curriculum out there designed to teach students computing principles, and they recommend a game like that. The game works like this: one person is playing the role of "programmer" and the rest of the class will try to follow their instructions. The goal is to duplicate a drawing that only the programmer can see.

The first game(s) the rules are easy -- the "computer" can ask questions and the class can see what the machine is doing. Then you introduce restrictions. The computer player will be restricted from speaking, for example. At the end you have the programmer obscured from the class, only able to speak to their classmates to describe a picture. As programmers we rarely get the "full picture" so to speak, and have to give precise instructions that both we and the computer understand identically.

The most important challenge to this as a teacher is selecting appropriate examples. They have a few, but I'd also add: a formula, with exponents, parenthesis, variables and subscripts. A pixel art smilely face ala CSS testing. A curve. A full binary tree with 4 levels. A small section of text, with bold, underline, paragraphs and bulletpoints. These are harder, but high school students can do it and it illustrates both rendering techniques and the need for language. For highschool students, I'd suggest spending a class on this, and then asking them to either write a paper (1 page tops) on the significance, or if the class is fast and small enough, hold a discussion.

How about writing Interactive Fiction? Download Inform and he can go through the manual coding alongside it. It's not a traditional programming language, but the concepts are there and easily accessible. Graham's writing really shines in the manual and he explains a lot of complex programming very nicely.

If your kid isn't so much into the writing (or the text only, which is understandable) then I'd start him off with Learn to Program.

Although your kid is probably too old for many of the exercises and activities, but Computer Science Unplugged is a fantastic resource.