[dkmn]

I heartily encourage this! Moreover, consider mason bees or leafcutter bees. Solitary bees are easier to raise (very easy, in fact), some species are 80x as effective in pollination as honey bees, they are very very docile, many may also be native to where you live (which I don't mean as a doctrinal requirement, but it suggests suitability as well as providing some good opportunities to study and experiment... we live in the Pacific NW of the US).

We've had mason bees for the last 4-5 yrs, which help with our backyard permaculture orchard/garden. I involved my kids (daughter about 7 at the time, son 10). Both loved it and learned a lot along the way.

Cost to start is low. Time investment also low. Check out Crown Bees (no financial affiliation) or search around for more info.

(disclaimer: we're just starting with leafcutters, but I've heard similarly great things about them)