Here's something that the techie-kid in your household with a new computer might find interesting.

Alice v2.0: Learn to Program Interactive 3D Graphics

This 3D authoring system created by the Stage3 Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University is a multi-platform (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows) Java-based Open Source application aimed at students in the middle school to college age range.

Earlier this year Electronic Arts agreed to help fund the development of Alice v3.0 and provide artwork (characters) for use in Alice.