I finally got to have my 7 yr old granddaughter, Tessa, for a few days before school started and we got down to teaching her to sew. I had gotten the small, basic Brother machine for her and she named her Molly. Anyway, the first day she sewed on paper on which I had drawn lines-straight, wavy etc. I explained the need to be able to sew a straight line. She spent several hours on this, trying out all the decorative stitches on her machine. The next day she picked her fabric and we made a pillowcase. I drew lines on the border for her to do more decorative stitching. She really enjoyed it and I loved the time spent with her.