Wearing full gear as an adult in the United States is an oddity. As an ATGATT'er, I'm certainly a member of a minority group. The decision to have our kids ride with us puts us even further out alone on the curve, so to speak.
Finding gear for kids has been a challenge, but we felt firmly convinced that is was the right thing to do. How could we as parents ride ATGATT and bring our kids along with a beanie hemet, blue jeans and sneakers?
For my daughter, we actually bought a child-sized textile jacket from Europe. Thankfully, Europe has a different attitude toward gear than the U.S. The fact that most riders wear their gear "over there" means there's a market for all sorts of gear. The gear is made for Europe, but at least it can be imported. Expensive, but at least available.
We've also had success outfitting my kids in XS adult jackets with some minor modifications - rolling up sleeves, pinning or snapping waistbands to fit. Wouldn't win any fashion awards (we aren't tailors or seamstresses), but it does provide essential coverage.
The rest of their wardrobe has been outfitted from the one segment of the motorcycle world that has child-sized gear in the U.S.: the off-road segment. Kids sized gloves and pants are readily available. It's a clash of styles, but it does provide coverage. The offroad gear may not have armor padded knees, but abrasion-resistant synthetic fabrics are available.
My son models his latest outfit; Adult small First Gear Jacket, motocross pants and gloves.. General purpose boots. Not shown is his HJC full-face helmet.
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I too am going down this path. I have been looking at an armored shirt meant to wear under a motocross jersey or any other jacket - we've appropriated a real-leather faux-badass-biker jacket from my wife's misspent youth that fits the youngster fairly well). The clearance rack at some online retailers, (newenough, bikebandit, etc) are great sources if looking for adult XS sizes at low $.
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