My first programming experience was using Logo on an Atari 800 as a 6 or 7 year old, and I instantly grasped the concept of a giving commands to a turtle with a pen.
It was as game-like as most entertainment software of its time, but it subtly forced me to learn some math in order to create complex shapes.
I do not get why Logo went out of fashion. To me it is the king among learners.
The physicality of the Logo turtle robot we had at our school back in the eighties was what made it "click" for me. Playing with something connected to the real world takes it to another level.
Scratch is really great - do not get me wrong! But I find it too advanced. They do support various external hardware. And I can highly recommend the Make lock mbot. Truly awesome.
But Scratch is one step up the ladder to me. It is a commitment to an eco-system and a super nice but blank canvas.
I find Logo to be simpler and more limited. This is a "good thing"(tm) when getting kids hooked. The first hit should always be free :-)
I have gotten some of my non-technical friends to buy mbots. They like the idea but the learning curve was to steep for them.
There’s a subset of scratch that felt very logo like. My kids (5 and 7 at the time) readily picked it up.
Their hardest struggle was dragging the blocks around with the touchpad. It would have been less frustrating to have a keyboard-based interface I think. (Now that I type this, I realize maybe I should have tried a two button mouse for them.)
It was as game-like as most entertainment software of its time, but it subtly forced me to learn some math in order to create complex shapes.
I think of Minecraft as a similarly clever idea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)