IMO, eight years old is a little young to be handling an RC plane on your own. Better if there's someone older to launch and land the thing, while the youngster gets his flying time with the plane high in the air. A nearby flying club is an excellent idea, although you may run into a bit of resistance with someone that age. And few clubs will let anyone fly who hasn't joined the AMA.

That said, I've always been partial to powered gliders as the best training planes for small childern. Flying is quite a bit trickier than it looks, and any newcomer needs a lot of time to react to what the plane does in response to control inputs. Gliders are nice and slow, and because they have such a shallow glide path, they almost land themselves. Electric gliders in the two-meter class are probably the best (small planes may be easier to handle, but they're harder to fly). A smaller RTF electric glider may be almost as good. You can certainly expect accidents along the way.

A simulator might be the better way to go in the long run. Not as much fun as flying the real thing, but they're remarkably realistic, and you can crash for free all you want.