Let her start by sewing with no needle to get used to the machine. When you are sure she can keep her fingers out of the way of the needle then any simple machine will do. The toy ones are just toys and she'll get frustrated with it in a short time. I bought my DGD the Janome 3/4 size Hello Kitty Machine when she was five and she still uses it at age 14. It does everything she needs it to do and still sews great.