The thing is...in my eyes anyway..the difference is that it was done around other road users - that bit is a no-no
Otherwise - as part of a road awareness "programme" then fine
As well as letting me "drive" in the same way (but never if any other traffic was around) my day used to tell me what he was looking at, and looking out for as he drove and I played driving alongside (in the days when kids were allowed in front seats etc)
I think that gave me a good grounding...so much so that i can still remember being about 9, sitting in the back seat, seeing the road narrowing for roadworks up ahead and looking at the red Cortina alongside, getting a "sense" that the driver was a numpty and saying "watch out for this red car, dad"
A couple of seconds later it accelerated and cut in, just clipping our offside corner. Even as a young child I'd started to develop those "spidey senses" which aren't anything to do with spiders at all, but a developed cognition of circumstances, people and events
So yes, when done right, involving a child in some aspects of driving, roadcraft etc can be a good thing; just as preparing a child for formal education by beginning the reading process (someone at work recently commented that their child in first year of school had his first gold star for reading - "That's ridiculous! He can't READ, he's FOUR!!!"
I thought that was a ridiculous statement to make - and like the "driving" - it shows that some consider children don't need to know certain things until a set age. I disagree
The difficulty is legislating for responsible and irresponsible - that's nigh on impossible