My 12 year old son seems to enjoy the pc very much and lately has been doing various power point presentations for fun. I'd like to keep him heading in this direction and was wondering what would be the natural next step? Like most kids he says he'd like to get involved in the gaming industry as far as developing and programming games. He is a bright kid (pretty much straight A's) and seems to enjoy learning by doing and if interested in the subject picks it up very well.

I was thinking about some kind of animation type stuff or some kind of basic programming so that he can start expanding from the power point stuff. I know power point is pretty easy stuff and he isn't going to be a master programmer over night, but like to get any input that you can give me!

Thanks

A good introduction, which has practical purposes and can be a lot of fun for him, is HTML. There are many sites that have excellent tutorials, and it is not too complex or difficult for a 12-year old. After learning that, your son could progress to Visual Basic or Flash animation (just to offer two choices). If he is interested enough after getting some skill sets, the best true programming language to learn is C++.
There is a very good thread about this subject:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic1817.html

Regards,
John

I am currently learning BASIC Programming. It is a easy language is im sure it be easy for him. Just do a google search for 'BASIC Programming download' and youll come across a free download website. There are also other programs and guides so you can learn.

BASIC was the only language I ever learned (read: had to start working for a living and ran out of time for Java and HTML). I started w/ an Atari and you had to write in BASIC for it to do much of anything. Then I moved to QBASIC which comes with almost every form of Window$ OS except XP. It is a really simple language (tell it what to do and it'll do it) also creates a base for any other languages he wishes to learn. It is sometimes easier to start at begining of modern programing and work your way to the latest and greatest.
A good site for QBASIC is QbasicNews.com

Does anyone have a good JabaScript tutorial i can look at ? Ive recently tried very hard to learn c++ i only have some basics at 15 and im trying to learn php, JavaScript, Html(already know), VB, C++ and any others if i can get thoes down if anyone has any good tutorils for javascript like i said it would be great i cant find alot at google but maybe one of you knows some Js and can teach me some.