Some of the most interesting computing I did was as a child with nothing but paper, a pencil, a programming book[0] and my imagination. I coded my work on reams of paper with decimal numbers representing everything (the idea of assembly code didn't really occur to me). I got a LOT of mileage from that method, and I still today refer to lessons and accomplishments learned that way. There is hope.

To be fair, I did have a Commodore64 to put my work into -- but perhaps the subject of this story could get one too -- the Internet and illicit hacking/communication are probably the biggest worries for a "no computer" environment.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Language-Commodore-Other-Compu...