I'm still using BASIC. I use it to teach my 6 year old son (and his 3 year old brother) to use computers. We have many, many solid quality hours as a team, huddled around my still-working old 8-bit machine, typing in programs, playing existing games, and so on.
The old 8-bit machine is the only system in the house that I can reliably leave my two boys with, knowing they won't get up to any mischief (no Internet!) and which they can fully control, themselves.
I'm constantly having the thought that its sort of a travesty that 8-bit, low-power machines like this are out of style - they're still highly useful machines. And I'm pretty sure my kids will know how to push pixels before most of the other kids in their social group even get their first XBox ..
The old 8-bit machine is the only system in the house that I can reliably leave my two boys with, knowing they won't get up to any mischief (no Internet!) and which they can fully control, themselves.
I'm constantly having the thought that its sort of a travesty that 8-bit, low-power machines like this are out of style - they're still highly useful machines. And I'm pretty sure my kids will know how to push pixels before most of the other kids in their social group even get their first XBox ..