[Edu-sig] number-line graphics for teaching arithmetic

[Fred Yankowski]

My 7-year-old son is learning arithmetic and I'd like him to be able
to play with some kind of interactive number line program in order to
learn some visualizations of arithmetic.  I'm thinking that this group
-- with its keen interest in Python and graphics -- might have some
suggestions of how I could find/create such a program.

Here are some scenarios of use:

+ Child types "8 + 5" into a text box (or describes that same
calculation in some point&click interface).  Program then displays a
number line with a vector drawn from 0 to 8, labeled with the quantity
"8", and another vector drawn from 8 to 13, labeled "5".

+ Child types "16 - 9".  Program displays a vector from 0 to 16 and
another vector of length 9 from 16 back to 7.

+ As above, but program also draws an additional vector to represent
the sum of the original vectors.

+ Working from the graphic for "8 + 5", the child drags the right-most
end of the "5" vector.  The program interactively redraws the "5"
vector, relabeling it to new lengths based on current pointer
location.  Only whole-number points on the number line can be
selected.

As you can see, this is quite trivial.  The goal (at least at first)
is not to teach programming, but rather to provide an interactive
visualization of basic arithmetic.  Even so, Python seems
well-suited.  So what graphic packages might work well with Python to
allow me to do this?  The ability to deploy the resulting application
via a web page would be a big plus, but not essential.  (Thinking
about that last point, perhaps Flash might be the way to go in the
long run.)

-- 
Fred Yankowski           fred@OntoSys.com      tel: +1.630.879.1312
Principal Consultant     www.OntoSys.com       fax: +1.630.879.1370
OntoSys, Inc             38W242 Deerpath Rd, Batavia, IL 60510, USA