Yeah, this would be great for kids, especially with a good library. Mindstorms really is a great start, and I think that comes down to two things, the physical,

Yeah, this would be great for kids, especially with a good library. Mindstorms really is a great start, and I think that comes down to two things, the physical, and the programming- physical because it's fun making things move, especially things you made, and mindstorms programming is so unbelievably simple in design, and yet so very effective. This seems to grab both parts, it has a nice interface, not too big as to be daunting, nor too small to be useless, and there are tomes written about arduino programming If you're interested in more advanced mindstorms, check out robotC and similar alternatives. They offer a lot more freedom with coding, so for the more advanced kids, it offers actual code, and a variety of very cool functions.