With it's paved, plowed road to 875m Whistler Olympic Park offers some of the quickest access to good backcountry ski terrain in the Sea to Sky Corridor.  The Hanging Lake trail climbs directly up from the cross country ski area through open forest and meadows to the subalpine bowl around Hanging Lake.  The ski terrain is excellent on all aspects with lots of options for intermediate through expert skiers.  Rainbow Mountain is not much farther and it can be done as a moderate day trip using the Hanging Lake trail as the approach.

Since this is a winter use trail, it hikes as a light bushwhack in summer conditions but we don't have far to go to get to the areas we need to work on (0.5km or less).  Altogether, I think these factors make it a suitable trip for families with kids to join.  My own kids are 8 and 11 years old.  Of course, you don't need to have kids to bring along in order to join this trip.

The best tools for younger kids are 2 handed loppers, as these naturally keep fingers away from the cutting blades when used with both hands.  There's lots of this kind of stuff for the kids to do on this section.  Older more responsible kids can use pruning saws or pole pruners.  I will have a chainsaw along but no kids will be allowed anywhere near it while it is running.

More information on the Hanging Lake trail can be found here: http://www.ubc-voc.com/wiki/Gin_Peak