Microsoft just released the first version of Small Basic which is aimed to get kids into programming. They also claim that it's "aimed at brining the fun back to programming".

The syntax has really been simplified from it's ancient predecessor and it comes with a really cool IDE. Here's a few screenshots from the documentation:

The hello world example:

Randomised drawing:

Code:

GraphicsWindow.BackgroundColor = "Black" 

For i = 1 To 1000 

    GraphicsWindow.BrushColor = GraphicsWindow.GetRandomColor() 

    x = Math.GetRandomNumber(640) 

    y = Math.GetRandomNumber(480) 

    GraphicsWindow.FillEllipse(x, y, 10, 10) 

EndFor

Forms:

Code:

GraphicsWindow.MouseDown = OnMouseDown 

Sub OnMouseDown 

    GraphicsWindow.ShowMessage("You Clicked.", "Hello") 

EndSub

It seems like a really cool way to help kids (or even adults) get started with programming and later move on to a more advanced programming language.