I decided to teach my niece how to program at the age of 10 as well. She had already just naturally gotten the hang of the computer since she was about 6 (though I had to reverse the mouse buttons because originally her small hands couldn't left click). At 10 years old she was already telling my sister-in-law how to do things, was a near master of google-fu and had all the game sites she liked bookmarked. I wanted to show her what else was possible, without it seeming 'sciencey' (apparently that is the new equivalent of 'nerdy').
I knew her weakness was video games - so I got her using DS Game Maker (http://dsgamemaker.com/) which allows you to to create games for your Nintendo DS. I had already set her up with a flash cart, so getting the games on there was a breeze. She started off with some real simple things, but as she learned how to do more and more (with some help from me on getting jump 'physics' going in Dynamic BASIC) and she eventually had a little game with her dog as the star in a 30 room game that each had puzzles to solve.
It's amazing what someone so young can accomplish - sadly her interest has dwindled and she is now on track to become a fashion designer. We shall see ;)
As a programmer with absolutely no interest in fashion, I found "Project Runway" to be the closest thing to watching a programming reality show. They talk about design and construction, and how they interrelate. If you can get past the obvious shortcomings, there was some interesting problem solving being done by the most talented contestants.
Ditto for cooking shows, but it's easier to judge the results of fashion because I can't taste the cooking show results.
Well - it's pretty interesting that you mention the technical aspects of fashion design. A friend of mines wife works as a technical designer for one of the big fashion companies - her job is to take the designs made by designers, and redesign them for mass-market so that they can be machine made.
I made it a point to tell my niece (just this last weekend) that she should pay attention in school because with that knowledge she can do anything and become anything she wants. If she wants to do fashion design, she will still need to know math because it is important (giving her an example of how me and my 6 year old nephew obviously don't wear the same size shirts - so how would they figure that out?). I just want her to do good in life no matter what route she takes :)
I knew her weakness was video games - so I got her using DS Game Maker (http://dsgamemaker.com/) which allows you to to create games for your Nintendo DS. I had already set her up with a flash cart, so getting the games on there was a breeze. She started off with some real simple things, but as she learned how to do more and more (with some help from me on getting jump 'physics' going in Dynamic BASIC) and she eventually had a little game with her dog as the star in a 30 room game that each had puzzles to solve.
It's amazing what someone so young can accomplish - sadly her interest has dwindled and she is now on track to become a fashion designer. We shall see ;)