My grand son-in-law who is a little older than you learned to fly largely on his on as he lived some distance from me
He first started with with Real Flight II he bought off The auction site And he also flew my glow engine plane with the buddy box and me in charge of the main transmitter.
Then he bought a 2 channel plane and came to me with it. I started flying it and it was so simple I just handed it over to him
http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ProdID=HBZ2600
It is left right control. Up and down is controled by the throttle. He flew this at home mostly

Then he got a 3 channel one like this and along with the extra battery and charger from the previous plane he progressed even more
http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ProdID=HBZ3600
He got pretty good on this and went to see his dad and they went out flying at his dad's house.
Then he got one of these with a four stroke glow engine after soloing my planes
http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ProdID=HAN1675

It took a couple years but he is his own man now that flies his own planes whenever he wants to.