shortly after my grandson turned 5, he announced to me, while i was sewing, that he wanted to learn to sew.
the first thing i did was unthread an older machine. i set it up on a table and showed him how the foot peddle worked to control the speed of the needle. i drew some lines on a piece of typing paper and gave it to him with the instructions that he needed to practice how to sew straight.
while he practiced I cut some 6 inch fabric squares from a couple of fabrics i had in my stash.
then i threaded my almost new Janome, put the foot peddle on a box so he could reach it, showed him how to get fabric in position, explained the presser foot and the buttons he would need to sew, and put it in the slow speed. i sat down beside him and let him go.
some of his first seams were wide but for the most part they were straight. he made a small lap quilt top by sewing the squares together,
well, we didn't stop there. he wanted to quilt it on my "big" machine. grandpa got two chairs and a sturdy board, set them in front of my gammil and my grandson quilted it. we took lots of pictures of that day. what a great time making a memory.
he doesn't want to sew and do nothing else, but when he wants to he knows how.
i am a retired school teacher --- if a child expresses an interest in learning how to do something--you must start right then. if you wait their interest may be turned away and sometimes they never get it back.