Do you know of a basic introductory course using Scratch so I don't have to ad-hoc it so much? We're supposed to be building a game but I need something, like KhanAcademy, that I can give my primary-aged son space to explore by himself without me hovering over him.

You may want to refer to the curriculum link I posted in the thread below. I don't think it is sufficient for what you are looking for. In fact, these days I am spending time on developing such a course (actually it is more than just programming; it includes intro to hardware and communications). Happy to share it with you when it is done. Also, would be open to receiving suggestions for it (based on your experience)

I'm pretty much winging it with the Middle Schoolers. Normally I throw a quick demo up on the big screen, talk about it for a couple of minutes pointing out what it does that they were struggling with in the last class.

Then they work on doing something interesting while I answer questions and ask "What happens if...".

In case you are interested, there is a curriculum that ScratchEd team has developed. http://scratched.media.mit.edu/resources/scratch-curriculum-... Personally, I also "wing it". I encourage them to come up with ideas for games, animations that implicitly requires them to cover all aspects of "computational thinking". It's implicitly because I don't want them to think of this as too academic; let them have fun while learning (for a change!)

Looks interesting -- they posted that a week or two after I was searching. We're heavily into animations and games right now, including one where the student is building up space invaders, one complication at a time.

My nine-year-old son learned Scratch last year. Oh, if only I had that when I was nine....