I know I have read that very young girls started off hemming hankerchiefs etc way back when. I was about 5 or so when my mother started teaching me to embroider. I am sure I poked myself a few times, I still do, but I survived. There was no childrens yarn boards etc that I remember . But the time I was 7 or 8 I could do all the basic stitches of embroidery. My son sat on my lap at age 4 and I showed him how to put the fabric through . I had a Viking that I could slow down the speed on and I used the controller. He was thrilled to have helped make his clothes and such. :-)