One TRS-80 or C64 VM per child. Modern laptops, even simple ones like these, are too complex for a child to be interested in manipulating them, in my opinion.

One TRS-80 or C64 VM per child. Modern laptops, even simple ones like these, are too complex for a child to be interested in manipulating them, in my opinion. And I don't think the OLPC machines are powerful enough to do most enabling tasks that would help a student. I've played with an OLPC laptop. The most interesting thing were the built-in programs to do stuff like measure distance using two OLPC laptops and sound. Not terribly accurate, I'm sure, but excellent for sparking discussion of physics.