Get them started with something very simple. HTML is not a programming language, but true programming languages are all very dry. I don't think an 8/11 years old will be interested in "sorting" or "searching" things. I say, get them started with "Adobe Action Script". Action Script is used to program Rich Internet Applications (RIA), and based in Flash. Flash you know is the popular animation and interactive stuff creating tool. You could get them started with simple drawing/animation and later on tell them how to move/transform things using Action Script. If you don't know Action Script, I believe you will learn it with some effort. Because you have playing with the beasts like Fortran :)

I started a blog related to everyday experiences of a programmers... and other stuff... but nobody ever reaches there... :( someone said SEO works... but don't know how it does... my blog's link is... http://aprogrammersday.blogpot.com