I'm also and instructor and I agree that the simulator CAN be a very valuable tool, but only if used correctly. I've had new pilots come out to learn to fly who had spent a lot of time on a simulator before ever going to the field, and there were a couple of things they had learned that was almost impossible to teach them to do correctly. If you are going to use a simulator, please make sure you have seen or talked to an instructor first. Simulators are great teaching tools, but they can teach bad habits as well as good habits. If someone does something wrong on the simulator they are going to repeat that at the field. So in that case they can be a very bad thing.

Ken