http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/bb308756.aspx
Languages aside, it's worth checking out how other people teach kids.
I remember typing in hundreds of lines of poorly visible code in the backs of magazines for the c64 probably 25 years ago.
Sounds great though.
And a very well remembered (and still relevant) lesson that once you've typed it all in, you should type 'SAVE' before you type 'RUN'
Finding typos that you've made is a great way of learning more about the programming language too.
Let's not inflict this on another generation :)
DATA statements aside, typing in reams of code from hard copy certainly ingrained the ability to predict what the code did long before finishing the typing in, and I'm sure that is something that comes in handy even today when scanning other peoples' code.
I think it is harder today to get started programming than it ever was in the past, the 'bar for entry' is no longer some crappy little game you can write in three days but some three-d studio produced glitzy epic adventure. No way 'block shoots block' is going to live up to that, even if you did write all of it yourself, and the 'enterprise' being the red block isn't much of a winner either.
Computers are no longer 'knowable', and this is another matter that needs addressing if we really want to lower the bar for understanding what goes on under the hood.
And I think computers are knowable. Some languages are not, but others are. Ruby has a REPL that's very good as a teaching tool. I've had a lot of luck teaching with that. C++ on the other hand, or even Java, not so much.
I know it's harder than it was, but we could change that as long as we don't decide to fail by defeating ourselves.
No way 'block shoots block' is going to live up to that, even if you did write all of it yourself, and the 'enterprise' being the red block isn't much of a winner either.