Ask HN: Best strategies, analogies and/or scenarios for teaching kids CS skills?

We're currently working on developing a teaching platform based around our BASIC interpreter DiscoRunner, and we would love to hear from HN readers as to what methods they've used in the past to teach kids computer science concepts -- which worked, what didn't, and why. This will obviously be invaluable to us when it comes to working out the lessons that will be taught in our fight-to-save-the-world-from-evil learning environment, and we would be eternally grateful for any scraps of wisdom you could toss our way. =)

Thank you!