I got some kids involved in RC flying by letting them use a cheap foamy plane called the Intruder ($40). It uses differential thrust for steering and its nearly indestructable. They flew that thing into almost everything you could imagine and it still kept going. After I seen them fly with decent control we moved up to a R/E trainer and they did fairly well. It lets you learn about alot of pitfalls (wind, orientation...ect) without having to spend alot for a sim. The sim is a good idea if you have the $ though.