Becca65:
Please have your friend read DivemasterDennis' blog entry for parents of Junior Open Water Divers at
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/blogs/divemasterdennis/65-parents-junior-open-water-divers.html
My daughter earned her Junior OW certification this year, and I cannot recommend that blog entry enough! Some additional insights from our experience:
a) As others here have said, your friend should not only be certified before his daughter, but be as experienced as possible as well. I was first certified in 2001, but took my time with additional training. When my daughter started asking about diving, I made it a priority to have my Rescue Diver before she started anything. If your friend is serious about diving with their child someday, your friend's training needs to start ASAP.
b) Before investing in an OW course for my child, she did PADI's BubbleMaker program at age 8, and the Seal Team and Master Seal Team courses at age 9. These were extremely valuable for a couple of reasons. First, it established whether she was likely to enjoy the sport before paying for a full OW course. Second, it gave me the opportunity to watch from poolside and see her comfort level with basic skills, and to speak with her instructors on her readiness to progress. All three kids programs gave her a taste of what to expect in an OW class and what kind of skills she would be expected to master along the way (including navigation and using an SMB in the Master Seal class).
DiveMasterDennis' blog talks about parents staying out of the water during their child's certification to avoid being a distraction. This should include being in the same class as the child, and not just shadowing the child's class. Too much risk that each will be a distraction to the other. In a group class, this will take away from everyone else's learning experience, and make a private class extremely inefficient.
Also... when my daughter went for her OW checkout dives, she completed the first two dives on Day 1 fine, but had some sinus issues on the second day that made her decide to call her dives that day and wait for another weekend to finish. While the idea of getting certified together may sound great, remember that stuff happens that could prevent certifying together. Avoid potential disappointment be keeping it separate and getting as much experience as possible first.
After saying all of that, I had a blast diving with my daughter last summer once she was certified, and on trip to the Bahamas this past November. She loves it, and I love watching her discover the underwater world. Already planning dives for this year. It has been a great experience, but frankly, it did involve two or three years of planning to be sure that we were both ready for it. With your friend not yet certified, that planning horizon should be longer, just so he can develop as a diver himself.