<t>One more case study (for what it's worth)...<br/> <br/> I started my programming career with BASIC, on an Apple IIgs in the mid-to-late '80s, copying short programs line by line from magazines.<br/> <br/> Over the years, I moved to QBasic, VB, then finally to C/C++ and Java (picking up a few othe...

How about math? A good understanding of math (binary/hexadecimal number systems, basic algebra, etc.) will be invaluable to learn computers/programming (while on the side helping them at school!) Win...Win.