The "casting with the wind thread" has diversified a little, and to keep it within subject, I have openerd this thread to speak about practice rods.
I have attached a link about practice rods and their advantages. These rods are great for kids and beginners, to tech them the fluids of line dynamics. Once they have grasped the concept of line movement, it is relatively simple to teach full rod casting.
I personally believe it is easier to teach a child to cast, than to teach an adult.. anyway, thats my opinion.
I built my own out of a 3 toot length of bamboo, and some woollen twine braided to form a heavy tip section, all in all, about 12 feet of "line". Works well

Echo Rods

As you probably know, the Echo MPR (Micro Practice Rod) is a copy of the Wulff Fly-O Practice Rod, invented by Lee and Joan Wulff. The Wulff fly-O used a section of red tow yarn for the line. The Echo MPR uses a section of macrame cord whipped to a section of tow yarn for the leader section.

Back in the late 1970's I used just a length of tow yarn and the top section of a two piece light spinning rod. You can also use the top half of a fly rod to practice.

There is really no need to even make a special rod when using tow yarn or macrame cord to simulate the fly line, if you trust the person or child not to break the rod.

There is also another casting tool called a "Spey-O in this issue of The Loop.