I decided today, since nobody was around (and being mostly a cripple at this time), to teach my 8 (just turned
year old daughter how to tell the difference between dice and how to count dice and what all the basics of D&D are. She seemed quite into it, all those shiny dice looked fun right!As soon as we ran through a few random rolling checks and basic math situations (just to see if she could even count a d6 with dots) I soon realized she's wayyy smarter than I anticipated. She asked me if we could play, like a real D&D game.
So I figured what the hell... lets see if she can even think and sit still for 10 minutes. And off we go!
Just off the cuff I put her 3 hours down an old wagon trail through a pass and into a forested area, where it's raining hard and the trail was covered in mud. Her first encounter would be as simple as an Orc rushing from the forests edge from about 50 feet away. I asked her what she wanted to do (having no character sheet in hand and no predetermined anything at this point) I told her various weaponry she had on her character. I asked her if she knew what an Orc even was. She said "no, but it sounds like Pork, so it must be a pig man right"?
Indeed, so I explained it's features to her and the excitement on her face was something to behold. She then piped up and said "I take out my bow and shoot at him"... told her to make her roll and she missed (explaining what AC was and what a hit roll is), then we rolled initiative for melee combat. She beat me and told me she wanted to take out her sword and chop into his chest. She scored a blow and took down the Orc. I explained to her that it appeared dead... what do you want to do? Now this is where it got interesting. Expecting the usual "I loot it" answer or I take it's weapons reply... she instantly exclaimed "I take out my knife and cut out it's heart". 
Now that's something dad DID NOT expect. She asked me if that was OK and I said sure... go for it. After discussing anatomy for a few seconds she plunged in her dagger and wanted to root around and cut it out whole. Now covered in blood and guts, she asked me to wash off the heart and her hands. I told her there were lots of puddles around because of the rain, so she did just that. THEN! She says, "I want to build a fire". So I told her it's raining and her chances are decreased because of that. She would also need a way to light it. So she asked me what she had in her backpack. I informed her that she had a tinder box, a few torches etc. (explained what those were). She told me how she wanted to go into the woods and find sticks and dry stuff to try and get the fire going. So I let her and soon she had a fire going after making a fire building check.
Now as a Dad, I'm thinking great, she's smart enough to do that...but why did she cut out it's heart. As a DM, I must admit, I was just curious to see what her knowledge of life is at this age.
She then said, "after my fire is bigger I want to find a stick, bigger than a hot dog stick, but small enough to stab it into the heart, cook it over the fire and then eat it! " and I'm like WTF in my head...
So I explained to her that it might make her puke to do that, but she insisted. After a few checks and 20 minutes of cooking she choked it all down. Then she explained to me how she wanted to build a tent (shelter), then how she wanted to drag the orc off the road to her shelter, which I made her make a STR check and BAM .. it happened a natural failure... hahaha. So I explained to her she landed in the puddle and was now soaked in mud and wetter than ever.
Make the fire bigger daddy, I make it bigger so I can get dry and SEE further. No shit eh... that's a clever girl. After explaining what radius means to her, she decided to cut up the orc into sections (to avoid the STR checks) and tie one of it's legs to her back pack for food for the rest of the journey.
At this point I'm thinking HOLY SHIT! we have a natural D&D player here. Her IQ is better then some of the players I've had in my past that were full grown adults.
After explaining the consequences of staying awake all night vs getting a good rest with nobody watching over her, she took a chance and went to bed. Woke up the next morning with the fire burnt out and everything where she left it. So I told her it's time to pack up and move on. So she did. Later that day she came across a rabbit, that leaped out onto the road. Gave her some options and she decided it would be best to just stand still and fire an arrow at it. BAM! Natural 20! The fear and joy of dad's exclamations froze her, but she caught on and cheered with joy, rabbit instead of orc ...yummy. But then she shocked me again, asked me if she could skin it and make something out of the skin. So I let her.
Longer story short now, she made her way to the next town, found and Inn, paid for a room, bought a tea, feed the Orc leg to the dogs in the back alley and we ended her adventure.
Total time approx 1 hour.
Lesson Learned: Yup, an 8 year old can play D&D, they can sit still still and listen and they CAN be very intuitive and understand things beyond what I would think the normal scope of knowledge is for a kid.
I also learned about my daughter... she's a savage! This cute little thing that plays princess all day, builds lego like it's going out of style and already wants to put on makeup has a dark side to her.
Dad was jumping for joy at this point
especially when she asked me "when can we play more" ... 
well done Megan, well done!I learned a valuable lesson today as a father, a DM and as a human. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE someone by their age, they may surprise you!
moments in life. Especially when it is our own spawn that are involved. I was about her age when I started, but it wasn't due to any parental influence. My own son took an interest when he was about ten. Once I saw his grasp of the game, I took him to pick his own dice. He saw a solo adventure and we picked that up too. That turned out to be his preferred game play until he was much older. Now in his mid-twenties, he plays with his own friends. He also has a reserved guest seat when he comes to visit me.
and hats off to Miss Megan 
"Some terrifying space monkeys maybe got loose?"