Tools for Elementary School?

[Lee Harr]

>> I gave a presentation about careers in computer science at my son's
>> Elementary school on Friday.  I also setup a Internet for them using Plone.
>> 
>> Anyway, during the presentation one of the teachers mentioned that the
>> students used to program using the built-in Basic language in their older
>> PC's and Mac's.  They got rid of the last computer that had this about 3
>> years ago.  They were wondering what they could do like this now.
>> 
>> So I was thinking that perhaps Python is a good language for these kids to
>> learn.  A couple of questions along this line of thinking:
>> 
>> 1.  Has anyone had any experience using Python as a teaching language at
>> this age level?  How would you compare Python to Basic for this purpose?
>> 
>> 2.  Does anyone have suggestions for tools for this environment.  Python
>> offers the interpreted interactivity of Basic.  Are there any tools out
>> there that would be simple enough for these kids to use, but might be more
>> helpful than just the "command line".
>> 
>> 3.  Finally, does anyone know of any tutorials or other education materials
>> that might work for this age group.
>> 


I am writing a library to help my (high school) students get started with
Python. It uses Pygame, and I start them out with a turtle-graphics-like
module I wrote. I think younger students would have fun with it also.

It is also a game programming framework, and I am writing a book which
uses the library. None of this is really finished, but it is useable.

The latest version is available here:
http://savannah.nongnu.org/files/?group=pygsear

More information and screenshots here:
http://www.nongnu.org/pygsear/