I share a similar thought. My wife's younger brother watches me write various things on occasion. He asks questions about how things work and I'll answer those. I've thought about buying him introductory books on a language, for example Python and showing him small programs to build. I'm hesitant to do that because I'm afraid it will cause him to lose interest since it will feel too much like mandatory school work and might take the fun and curiosity out of learning to program and tinkering with ideas.

I remember when I was younger, thinking to myself if a certain idea could be done and trying it out. The joy of getting the idea to work was a great feeling.