I took some friends out with their kids on Sat to get them started in shooting. Their dad and I decided that shooting off a bag at a close target would be best to develop confidence in hitting the target. This was inspired by the "Designated Sniper" idea that James E told me about. I really like this idea because the kids can properly shoulder the rifle. We used his scoped Ruger M77/22, which is a pretty sweet rifle BTW.
We set up an empty 1 qt. propane bottle at about 15 yds, gave them a safety briefing and got Cameron is position. After some instruction and dry fire, she loaded the rifle herself and hit the bottle on the first shot O0. Ethan was up next and he hit on the first shot. After about 20 rds each they got bored with the easy target and started shooting at old cans and stuff 40-50 yds away and made a few hits. Both ran the bolt and preped thier own mags very well for 10 and 8 yr olds.
Cameron was very excited about doing this for 2 whole days. She will be at the Ridgecrest shoot, not sure about Ethan yet.