Starting from scratch

Note that familiarity bred from an early age helps:

Mine started (light winds, sunny day) when very tiny (summer they were born), and have been on or near water ever since (now 10 and 8). They have gone sailing/paddling when the weather is nice and they have felt like it, in Firefly, Mirror or Puffin, which is like an oppie but has Mirror style tanks to sit on, so comfortable.
When very small, a boat like Mirror, Firefly or Grad is great, as in the right weather you can spend 90% of your concentration on the child and sail the boat by instinct.
Then once they ask you to, you can send them out in a smaller boat by themselves, and they should have the confidence by then to have it feel like home.
My son now loves racing, even with me (and I panic), so long as we win or come close.

I remember being taken to Sinah sands in Langstone after racing in my Fathers Ent each weekend. One day he told us we'd have to go "under the jib" if we wanted to go: I can still remember telling him I didn't mind, I had this image that for some strange reason we'd have to crawl up the foredeck and huddle under the jib, but if that meant I got to make sand castles, that was fine by me!

My best advice would be whatever you do, make it fun- there have been gaps, but I'm still sailing with him, and I'm 51, he was 79 this week. I guess I was maybe 4 at the time of that memory?

Subtle clues, frankly.

My little girl goes out sailing with me. If the wind is really light then we take the Laser out together. If there is any real wind or one of her friends is around (from the club) we take the clubs Vision out.

She just loves it, being out with daddy (especially if there are small colour balls floating so she gets to pick them up.

She shows no interest at all in racing yet and I am not going to push her at all. For now she and i will continue to enjoy lazy afternoons on the water.

I would never take her out on the water if there was no rescue cover though. Although she is confident in the water I would not want to take that risk. She is also one of thebig reasons i want to get my DI so I am more confident of my own abilities (nothing like a well run DI course to test you).