Chuck, I had the experience for the first time recently. One of my son's stepkids had his first try. 10 year old. We kept him strictly to the .22lr, except for one shot with .223. He was reticent about the centrefire at first, then thrilled when he found it didn't break his shoulder. But otherwise we reckon it's best to take one step at a time. There's a lot to learn.
We worked to the one round at a time rule.
We stick to that when shooting paper (on a farm, not a range), except when firing a string to sight-in.
As well, our rules..
*No-one positioned forward of the shooter.
*Always warn you are about to shoot. We say, loudly "Fire in the hole!"
* Wear ear protection. Essential for kids.
* Always leave bolt open after the shot, and check empty.
*We use, but never ever rely on safety catches alone when target shooting.
* Remove bolt and point rifle high on shooting stand to go downrange and check/change targets. I slipped the bolt in my pocket when the kid was with us. Trust?? They have to earn it. We never let kids touch the guns unsupervised. They're kept right away from the shooting table when there is a gun there waiting for further use. Kids love to fiddle. When we go downrange and there are no other adults to keep an eye on them, we take 'em downrange with us. It's good exercise. Ideally, get a spotting scope. And hope the weather isn't too hot. Atmospheric shimmer can make spotting harder over even 100 yds.
*We religeously stick to the process of showing condition of firearm before handing it over to another shooter.
*Make sure kids are where you can always see them.
Our kid is a totally inexperienced city kid, so we had to know that his head was in the right place and that he at least had enough maturity not to believe he was playing cowboys and indians. I'd say, don't be too nice if they make a safety mistake. Tell them firmly and forcefully what the implications are...a lifetime of woe if they accidentally, sorry, CARELESSLY hit somebody. No forgiving yourself really.
Was it rewarding? Yes, he seemed rapt. He got around the rules ok and he's not really used to strong discipline. Just a matter of keeping him on the straight and narrow in future. My son and I hunted later with him along and he seemed able to get his head around the exercise. We won't let him hunt until he gets some accuracy and understands the ethics of quick-kill fully.
A couple years ago we had our young granddaughter along to a farm where we'd just hunted foxes. She checked out one of the carcasses and I was concerned she'd be seriously repelled by the act. But she seemed to understand when we told her how the fox can kill any of the cute lambs she was seeing around her.
I can only say that if the kids do seem repelled, they'll probably stay that way. And vice versa. No use pushing it on them. Just try to educate I guess. Bit off topic but one thing leads to another.
