New A-500 for 12y old daughter - software recommendations?

Hi everyone,
I bought an A-500 for my 12 year old daughter who has been playing piano for several years. Her older brother is a percusionist and is getting pretty good at using Cakewalk Music Creator with analog instruments. Sonar seems similar. I thought the MIDI keyboard would allow them to work together on some projects. I installed the A-500 drivers with the included Sonar LE, Rapture, etc. After spending several unsuccessful hours with it last night, I've concluded that it is way too complicated for her right off the bat. Is there something simple she can use with her laptop/A-500 to experiment with synthesized sounds, maybe with some very simple recording capabilities? She had a simple Casio keyboard at one point, so I was looking for something more powerful than that but not something that is going to frustrate her (and me!) right from the start. Thanks
David

Thanks for the reply, Bassman. Right now I am frustrated trying to get the inputs and outputs working correctly. I can see that Sonar is receiving the signal vrom the white bar meter on the right but I can't hear anything through the headphones plugged into the laptop. I had that issue with Music Creator with analog instruments initially but eventually got the input and outputs worked out. I set the input to the A-500 omni. I load Rapture as a VST and then can select it as an output but I still can't hear anything. In videos that I've seen on Youtube, it looks like the bar meter should appear in green at that point (like it does for analog instruments), but it doesn't. That's just one example of how bewildering this is to someone new. Even the most basic instructions use a lot of acronyms and references that aren't truly intuitive - but I'm working on that. At one point I could hear the keyboard, I believe it was when I selected the onboard sound card as input and output, but the delay was bad and the sound quality was inconsistent. I believe I now have it selected with WDM drivers. I haven't tried selecting ASIO and I'm not sure what a "compatible ASIO interface" even means.
 
Those are my frustrations, though. If you have kids, you know they now have the attention spans of gnats and if you don't hook them early on with something impressive but easy to understand, they zone out. That's especially true for my daughter! I ordered a book that is supposed to cover Cakewalk from start to finish, so we'll see. Maybe I should have looked at synthesizers that are more self-contained and could be played as an instrument in a band rather than focus so much on the recording aspect.
David
 

By asio, guitarhacker and i are referring to the Steinberg standard for recording. its pretty much universal now for low latency recording, and a total "must have" if you want to do anything involving VST instruments and want to hear them in real time. ASIO4ALL is a driver that pretends to be an asio soundcard, and gets your cpu to do it, however if you're not particularly technical, and even if you are, i'd probably just suggest getting an audio interface. that will give you mic inputs, balanced outputs, the low latency control, midi in and out for your midi keyboard (unless you would prefer to use the usb etc).. look at things like the UA-25EX. there are defiantly cheaper and more expensive units out there, but that will give you an idea of the kind of thing you should be looking for. if you can find one, and are willing to spend a bit more and want a LOT more integration (ie all the buttons of sonar at your fingertips) see if you can get a VS-100. its a much more convienent way than navigating around the computer screen. it may well be overkill for you input wise at this stage, hence why i've suggested just finding a cheap 2in 2out interface from a good brand. NI, Akai, edirol/cakewalk, and many others all make great interfaces. but as we've both said, its something you "have to have" if you want to do any kind of recording and dont want to suffer tonnes of issues regarding latency. ASIO is the only way to go