It's only too early to teach a child programming if the child doesn't want to learn it. I clearly remember programming in Apple BASIC when I was 4 years old. But my programming education was cut short when I became frustrated that my father couldn't (or didn't bother to) sufficiently explain (in a way I understood) why a for loop was used to make the computer pause for a few seconds ("but why do they call it a 'for loop', daddy?"). I promptly stopped programming at age 5, preferring late nights of Rocky's Boots and hex-editing my Bard's Tale characters. I started programming again when I was 18 and in college. I realized I had missed it greatly. I really wish I had continued to program from ages 5-18.

So in short, don't force it on the kid, but if the kid shows interest, it is never too early.

-panguar