My son has been writing games using MIT's Scratch. It is visual and highly interactive. In an afternoon he can build something that looks cool to him, is interactive, and that he can share with others. It's not Python but he is learning how to make the tools do what he wants and he is getting results. He's 8 years old.
http://scratch.mit.edu For introducing kids to programming, I recommend Scratch. Kee Nethery -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
