A.,
I have been teaching 9-12 year olds to sew for the past few years. PLEASE don't get her a "kids" machine. Get her one of the more basic machines maybe, but not the Kids. A LARGE number of my students have recieved them for Christmas or Birthday, and they either don't work at all from the get go, or only work for a very short period. They had NO luck having them fixed OR refunded. :-(
If you want to invest in a GREAT, (but reasonable...$200ish)machine, look at the: Kenmoreitem #02016231000 Mfr. model #16231
I absolutely LOVE my machine for kids. It has a speed control. One of the hardest things for kids to learn is controling the material and the speed at the same time. I can put my machine on slow, and no matter how hard they step on the control it will just creep along. It's truly a phenomonal addition, and one that I haven't seen on another machine.
If you are in the southern DFW area, I would be happy to help your daughter a few times to get to know her machine. :-)
T.