Well, I think her image quality is going to be plenty good enough without an SLR. Getty bought a bunch of my pictures off Flickr recently, and I don't have an SLR. (I have a Canon S90, which is a nice digicam, I'll grant you.) I just don't see her lugging around an SLR--or ME lugging around it around, more accurately! Anyway, I think she has plenty to learn on the presets before going to manual, if she ever does.

That Olympus looks pretty good--that's the sort of thing I was thinking about, or a protective skin of some kind, like you mentioned. Ken Rockwell recommends the Canon D10 for kids--shockproof and waterproof: http://www.adorama.com/ICAD10.html?...m_campaign=Other&utm_source=rflAID021866

but it's more than I'd prefer to spend.