I know there’s tons of instructional DVDs out there for guitar. It seems like the same concept, but it’s not really. Even learning guitar from an instructional video is difficult, but then add the difficulty of trying to teach a proper bow hold, the lack of frets on a violin neck, and how to hold the instrument itself, and there’s a problem. A private teacher would be able to personally put temporary tapes on her violin, so she would know where to put her fingers for the notes. I don’t have any recommendations for DVD’s, because I would never recommend using one to really learn well. A private teacher is your best bet, but definitely look for some sort of public youth orchestra she could perhaps get involved with. Even my elementary school offered an after school orchestra program for beginners, which is where my friend learned to play. Paired with private lessons, she became very good, very fast.

The violin is a great instrument to play! I hope your daughter gets something out of it.

the problem with learning ANY instrument from a DVD when the student has not any prior training is that you develop so many bad habits without knowing it, especially with violin since it’s relatively difficult to learn. A good teacher is invaluable in the sense that he/she can observe/evaluate how the student is understanding and responding to what they are learning. Since eveyone is different physically, there are bound to be questions and problems that every student would have along the way, and only a teacher "in person" would be able to help.

In my professional opinion, many of these DVDs are there for the profit.

And if your daughter gets into it, you will have to spend even more money to get rid of the problems. See if you can get a violin major from a university near you(call their music department) to come to your house(get someone who’s a violin major, not minor). Or maybe her school has an orchestra so the string teacher there may be able to help her. If you can’t do that, then I would say wait a little bit till you can.