SmallBasic? No thanks.

''After a year in the making, and with very little fanfare, Microsoft last month launched Small Basic, a free programming language aimed at kids.'' [source]

Why make a new language, and with a complex concept like dot-notation?
Taking a look at the environment and at the language, perhaps it is simpler to introduce kids to Javascript!

I think anybody can make a simple javascript-enhanced html page to do the same things:
- variables and values
- if
- for loops
- printing text
- drawing images

I actually did something similar a couple of years ago: there is a simple text-area to write the code in, a button to run, and the right half of the page shows the ouput.
If I rewrite it now, using the HTML5-standardized CANVAS tag, I can also provide graphics, and the ease-of-use will be almost identical to that of Small Basic...

(perhaps I should write a similar environment, put it online and post about it... :> )