The easiest way to teach kids how to program is via Lego Mindstorms. I don't know a single programmer who didn't play with Lego as a child. The Mindstorms kit is expensive, but you can do a lot with it and it also teaches the basics of sensors and robotics. Graphical languages are great ways to introduce programming without the rather inane things you need to learn like syntax.
In hindsight Mindstorms was my first exposure to programming and I didn't even notice. I just enjoyed solving the problems in the book and making the little robot do what I wanted.