[Vince Ferrer]

Step at a time. I found C1 easy, then stepped up to C++

I wouldn't recommend starting with C and going to an object oriented language later either, because that's what I did. If you become good at C, there is a lot to unlearn to properly code in objects. Just unlearning things takes at least a year or two.

Depending on the age of the student, Scratch is a good learning tool. Also Pharo, which is a free Smalltalk implementation. You can't get a job in Pharo, but it is great for learning object oriented languages.

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

Well, I didn't have a whole lot of choice. I learned Basic and fortran in school, then learned COBOL for biz then learned C for curiosity and work.

C++ didn't really exist yet.

[DrJeff]

Scratch is great! Some of the projects on there are fantastic - really great environment that allows creativity to shine.

Have used Lego WeDo set to teach OO (block programming) and Arduino.