We use Zebco micro 33 reels and they are on 4' 6" Zebco hot cast fishing poles. Pretty much kid proof.

because they work and feel solid. The zebco omegas are good but the newer 33's are 1 sandbass away from junk.

I ordered a silver cast that come in like a week for my boy so thanks for the recommendation.

Diawa GC80

I can do this with a spinning reel but I figured out playing with this set up it's a lot more accurate.
I fall back on something I learned from Guido Hibdon a long time ago. He was famous for what I call suicide fishing; basically he fished a finesse set up with 8 pound line where most of us would be using 50 pound braid and he rarely ever lost a fish. He won a Bassmaster Classic doing this. How in the heck does that work you might ask? Very simple, set the hook and apply as little pressure as you can on the fish and it will swim out of the cover because it's natural instinct is to swim to deeper water. His motto was "You can't put them in the boat if you don't get bit". I used this method on Fork a lot back in the 90's and caught some really nice fish.

I think St Croix makes a little pistol grip rod in the 6’ range.

The Zebco Bullet is a great spincast reel. Can handle braid and big fish

THe Diawa silver cast came in last night and I have to say easily impressions are this thing is built like a tank. Seems to be much higher quality than a Zebco 33. My little boy is very excited so last night we went out to the front yard to cast a little bit. Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions!

I had a Diawa spin cast reel when I was a teenager back in the 70's, mowed yards to get it, it was an awesome reel it looked pretty much like the current Silver (and I think that is what they called it back then as well) model but probably made with more metal and less plastic. I caught a ton of bass on that reel and it never showed any sign of weakness. Diawa used to make some really good gear and as far as I know they still do, it ought to get the job done!
All those reels from the 60's and 70's were built out of aluminum, stainless steel, and brass for the most part, about the only plastic on them was the crank handle. The Johnson Century I'm using is from the late 70's early 80's and I probably paid $30 for it new. A reel built like this one would probably cost a few hundred dollars to produce now because of the materials its made from.........