Great answer, thanks, glad to hear you've tested the alternatives and it's just that I've been away from the child learning picture too long.
Out of curiosity, in your research, did you ever come across any material on how to teach symbolic logic (be it math, CS, music, or linguistics) specifically to children not naturally talented in it? This is a problem I've become interested in recently, but haven't dug into the research yet.
Honestly, I can't remember if I have, but it would be interesting to read something about it. I wonder if it's kind of the same problem as trying to teach concepts to kids that are just at the limit of their ability to comprehend even if they are naturally gifted. It's tough, man. My experience of trying to explain functions, arrays, loops and conditionals to young kids is tricky, but I think you just have to apply the same techniques as you would teaching math and eventually you'll figure out some techniques that work. You can try breaking it down into the smallest of steps and go very slowly with lots of practice. Sometimes analogies help, but sometimes not. Sometimes, you can just show them a bunch of simple examples which they'll be able to pattern match against until they can absorb it, but sometimes not. More than anything, I think you just have to be patient and experiment.
As an example, my daughter Izzy, who's 7 and in second grade, is really struggling with her math and it's pretty frustrating frankly. But my wife has been trying lots of stuff with her like watching Khan Academy videos, doing practice problems on www.ixl.com, working through Singapore and JUMP math workbooks, working with physical objects as examples - counting change, poker chips, or whatever.
The bottom line is that every kid is a little different and what works for some may not work for others, unfortunately. ;)
Edit: In regards to how to teach symbolic logic to children who may not be naturally talented, you might want to check out JUMP Math: http://jumpmath.org. They seem to be doing some innovative things. Here's an interview with the founder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3YWnbxOxMQ.
Out of curiosity, in your research, did you ever come across any material on how to teach symbolic logic (be it math, CS, music, or linguistics) specifically to children not naturally talented in it? This is a problem I've become interested in recently, but haven't dug into the research yet.