The first thing I did with my Granddaughter was to tear pages out of a coloring book for her to sew on without thread. There is a great book called Raggedy Reverse. She has worked with kids as young as 4 and has some really neat projects. I got my Janome 6600P when she GD was 7. She had been sewing a couple of years. When I picked it up we both sewed with it and she prefers to sew on it to this day (now 11). She likes Thread painting and she knows when that 1/4 inch seam needs to be taken out and redone.
Diane/Wyoming/Janome 6600P