Best airsoft for teaching 5yr old?

Howdy! My five year old daughter has shown an interest in learning to shoot. She already knows not to touch real guns yet (basically the Eddie Eagle approach, but she can't recite the whole thing) and seems to be interested in getting a .22 Cricket when she's ready.

It seems like a good stepping stone would be a spring-loaded or pumped up airsoft rifle (hopefully the shape of something more like a Cricket than an AR since I'm likely to have her first shooting experiences be with a Cricket or something similar). This way we could get the 3 (or 4) rules of gun safety really engrained and give her some basic experience with the fun of target shooting & very basics of marksmanship... at least sign alignment, anyway!

Kinda prefer something with not a ton of power so we can just shoot it indoors with a backstop.

Any suggestions?

When I was a wee lad, there was no such thing as airsoft. I learned on a basic pellet rifle. Open action, load pellet, aim, shoot repeat. Very similar to shooting a Cricket or similar single shot 22. We used to stuff an old box with newspaper and shoot in the basement with no problems.

Used to line up fired shotgun shells and pick them off one by one, great fun for a young'un, or even an oldster. Later graduated to a 22 with CB caps and could still shoot in the basement, might want to check them out and just get the cricket. I had not seen them for a while, but just did so at a gun show last week.

My Kids skipped right over BB guns and went right to .22lr trainers. I much prefer the Savage Rascal vs the Cricket, you pay a few more dollars but it's with it. My daughter started at 8 and my son at 5. My Son is now 8 and has moved up to bench shooting an AR pistol chambered in .22LR and a Heritage Rough rider, and tomorrow I'm buying a used M&P 380 EZ to start my daughter off with on center fire pistols at 12 years old.

If your worried about noise I used only CCI quiets sub Sonics and they are very quiet without a suppressor it's like lighting a single firecracker off. With ear pro you barely hear it. There are some inside ammo options even with 22lr if you have a small bullet box and use the Super Colibri powderless ammo which is super low noise and only fires using the primer.

https://www.sgammo.com/product/22-lr...mer-fired-20-g

My kids went straight to .22's. took them back to the culm guess and shot at golf balls.

My kid went straight to the .22 . Rather than having her recite the rules to you, why don't you try reciting them with her? Also the airsoft may give a false sense responsibility. Even a five year old can understand that.

Dunkleburger's has/had a good selection of very realistic cap guns. There were revolvers, rifles, size by side shotguns and (I think) semi auto pistols. Some used rolls of caps like the old days and others used stick ons like on the base of the shot shells. I was impressed by the realism and thought that the shotguns would be good teaching tools for hunting(safe carry, trigger finger placement, muzzle control).

Guess I never followed up here... based on what everyone chipped in here, I got her a Daisy (black & pink.. I let her choose the look) and set up an indoor trap and backstop and we went shooting shortly after quarantining started. She had a great time & had great trigger discipline! Hopefully the beginning of much more range-time together in the future! :)

Thanks to everyone for the tips and experiences!