In a month or so I'll be starting a games design course at a university, I've done research on different types of courses, universities etcetera to ensure I don't land at a dodgy one that teaches useless/outdated methods, or is even just rehashing their computer science course with some graphics stuck on the end (One uni open day I went to demonstrated this, I know it's just student work but all their "Best student work" looked like it was done in google sketchup and coded in notepad and they never said what game dev engines they actually used. Combined with spending several weeks at the start making an MP3 player for no reason I really found said course quite dubious).
Mum keeps suggesting that in the summer before the start of the term (If I even get in, fingers crossed an all that) I should learn how to program. Whilst I'm well aware that it's unlikely I can master C++ in a month it might not hurt to gain some basic knowledge to save myself time and possibly frustration when it comes to the course. That and I'll have a vague idea of what I'm doing instead of just being the guy who played a LOT of video games, heh. Whilst I'm leaning more to the design aspect, from what I gather programming is very crucial for making a game actually work. I'm not an amazing artist but I can just about get by, but I have the programing knowledge of a new-born.
tl;dr: Where/How can I learn the basics of programing from scratch like I'm a five year old with short attention span? In C++ and in reference to game development if possible or reasonable.