This kid has become the youngest Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in the world. 

Pranav is a fourth grader at Willow Elementary School in Agoura Hills, Calif., a small city outside of Los Angeles. On January 12, Kalyan passed the MCTS test in ASP.NET Framework 3.5, which already makes him smarter and more skilled than me.

This story was first reported by the Times of India, which spoke with Pranav and his father Kalyan on the phone. Kalyan comes from Tamil Nadu, a state in Southeastern India, and said Pranav was introduced to computers at the age of two.

“As a toddler, Pranav was more fascinated by computers than toys. He started writing small software programs at the age of six,” he said. “He is capable of solving problems in differential calculus and integral calculus. His efficiency in mathematics helped him write programs.”

After mastering simple HTML, Pranav was ready for the next step. Eighteen months ago, he began seriously preparing himself for the MCTS test.

“I spend at least eight hours a day on computer programming during holidays,” he said.

His hard work paid off when Pranav unseated Babar Iqbal, a student in Dubai who passed the MCTS exam at the age of 12. These astonishing boys validate Microsoft’s efforts to prove that Windows 8 is so easy, children can use it. They also make me feel a bit bad about myself, since I still use my phone calculator for basic arithmetic.

If you’ll excuse me, I have some stuffed animals to organize.

A crowning accomplishment of my teenage years was the custom version of Clue I made with a few friends, complete with a board, game pieces, and playing cards. Beyond the enjoyment of accusing our P.E. teacher of smothering victims with Sloppy Joes in the auditorium, this game contributed little to our futures.

A startup called MakeGamesWithUs is elevating this type of adolescent undertaking by teaching high school and college kids how to build iPhone games.

MakeGamesWithUs graduated from the YCombinator Winter 2012 and just launched its first social game in the AppStore. On the website, students take project-based tutorials that focus on hands-on, practical experience, rather than theory. Once they feel confident in their iPhone game development skills, they can begin building original games.

Students can engage with the MakesGamesWithUs community during the development process to get help, give/receive feedback, nurture ideas, and troubleshoot problems. As it nears completion, the MakeGamesWithUs team will incorporate professional art and music, help with debugging, and assist in adding trickier features. When the game is ready, MakeGamesWithUs will publish and promote the games for a share of the revenue.

To date, the startup has published seven games on the App Store. It just launched its first social game, Name That Jam!, where groups of friends challenge each other to name songs, earning more points the faster they guess. The game was built by a brother and sister team, still in high school, using MakeGamesWithUs’ Turn Based Multiplayer software development kit (SDK). This new tool makes it easy for aspiring developers to build social games, even without back-end knowledge.

“We founded the company to solve a problem we had when we were students,” said founder Ashu Desai. “This type of practical education is lacking from the traditional education system. Having built and shipped a product at an early age can really impact your outlook on life. We hope to inspire people to invest their time in both computer science as well as entreprenuership.”

MakeGamesWithUs has an educational as well as a publishing component. This distinguishes it from competitors like GameSalad and Chillingo, which support design/development and publishing (respectively), but not both. In some ways, it is like an incubator program for young iOS developers, providing the resources, support, and platform needed for success and taking a cut off the hits.

Instead of working on their tan or earning extra cash as a lifeguard, a group of 40 students spent their summer plugging away in the founders’ Palo Alto living room. The fruits of these labors will bloom over the couple of months, as MakeGamesWithUs plans to release 15 new games created during the internship program.

With all the laments echoing around the technology community about the shortage of engineering talent, this company is grooming kids early for careers as gaming moguls. Camp counseling is so 1990s anyway.

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Kids these days demand technology, which is why Fuhu Inc, a creator of kid-friendly technology products, announced today it has raised $10 million.

The funding will go toward expanding Fuhu’s products and services. Fuhu’s flagship product is the nabi tablet, an Android tablet made especially for kids. The device has “kiddified” web-browsing capabilities, educational games, and entertainment options. It is built to endure and adapt as kids grow up (they do that), and can also be transitioned into a fully functioning tablet for Mommy and Daddy.

Fuhu released nabi 2 last month, pimped out (can I say that in an article that refers to kids?) with enhanced graphics, a wide range of learning and entertainment options, and a host of tools that parents will love. The nabi 2 contains more than 2,500 lessons that relate to a state-standardized curriculum. It is also equipped with analytics so parents can monitor their kids’ work. Furthermore, the tablet features a Chore List app, which parents can use to assign tasks and offer rewards when they are completed.

Another Fuhu product is Fooz Kids, an Adobe Air application that puts kid-friendly apps on computers. Parents can install security controls so their offspring can surf the internet in a safe and protected environment.

The round was led by ORIX Ventures, a Dallas-based venture capital firm that focuses its investments on mid- and late-stage companies. This is Fuhu’s fourth round of funding. The company last received $15 million in 2011 from the Foxconn Technology Group and Kingston Digital, Inc. Its total investment stands at $32.75 million.

Fuhu is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif.