> Anyway I have had a lot of success introducing programming with roblox scripting. It adds a lot of the "missing" lua library features and the script editor is a decent basic IDE that simplifies tooling, another huge pain point for novices.

I've had some success introducing programming in Lua to kids (ages 7-12) by way of the OpenComputers Minecraft mod. They were all already into playing modded Minecraft, and getting in-world feedback from running various commands (turning on/off redstone signals, moving around blocks, attacking monsters, etc.) meant that the "boring" time between "hey, let me show you how to program" and something exciting happening was <5 minutes. Beyond Minecraft-specific libraries, the computers in the mod also come with a HTTP client library, an editor and a shell that directly runs Lua scripts.