Imho an interest in figuring stuff out, building things and some capability in abstract thinking are way more important than an interest in programming language at a young age.
My own daughter is too young, by my nieces danced around screaming when the robot they made spun in a circle, or when they got an LCD to flash 'HELLO'/'GOODBYE'.
Micropython opened a new world for them.
He still has time to hack together a fantasy console for his kids, motivated I think, by the same forces that prompted your lament:
http://github.com/antirez/load81.git
.. dig in, submit a PR, and leave the despair behind. Your kids can still learn computing just as you did ...
Fingers crossed American English won't have completely taken over the world by the time he's learning to spell!
Actually, being a non-American Anglophone country where American English is a vehicle for lots of technology has had some interesting consequences. For example, we have the word "programme" for "schedule", but "program" for "computer instructions". I think there are other examples.
And then something like this comes along. This is something I can see us exploring together, that rewards creativity and doesn't try to impose anything. I'm so glad there are people making esoteric software with depth. Thank you, hundredrabbits.
(I've not actually tried Orca, but it looks very cool)