There are absolutely a ton of good quality free tutorials out there on php. Front page isn't as great as you might think it is later on. Especially if you have to change all of the front page extensions stuff if you move to a web host that doesn't provide it or you graduate to Dreamweaver.
Pick a simple project like a guest book and work from there. Design the entry form in FP then code the insert code in php. The do a read program. Its normally easier to learn to code if you work on a real project of some sort. There is motivation to get it done that will help you through the challenging parts.