I don't think it matters. I believe the mandatory classes are meant for kids/people who don't learn from parents/grandparents, etc. Your kids should have already learned what they need to know from you. The class should be just a required formality.
My daughter just took it a month ago, she's 12 years old and have been carrying a rifle for two years. I asked her if she learned anything new there and her response was "nothing I didn't already know" Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That's the point sachiko was making. They should be learning from us. Our daughters (8 & 6) hunt with us. They have all the skills right now, but they are very small. like their mother. So it will be quite a few years before they will be able to shoot anything.
In Indiana you have to take the course if you were born after Dec. 31 1986. Within the last few years they added an apprenticeship license in which you can delay taking the course but can only purchase it three times in a lifetime. You also have to be accompanied by an adult with a license. I missed the cutoff by a year and took the class in the Fall of 99'. I was 11, getting ready to turn 12. My Dad doesn't hunt so I took the class with my older brother who would have been 24 or so at the time. I had been going into the woods with him for a couple of years at that point but not actually hunting myself. So ideally you could take your child hunting when they are 8 or 9 using the apprenticeship license and then have them take the class after three years.
