Temperature certainly does have an effect. We had arranged 2 recording sessions each a week apart and one day was boiling hot and the other day was freezing. It wasn't only the flute that was out... all the wooden instruments were and we had planned to do some harmonies etc on the second session - but no way was that going to work!

I agree that you should let your daughter try before you buy. Flutes do have individual characters and the more you play the more you get to know what your instrument can do. However you do get a feeling initially about whether you are going to get on with the instrument or not so it's better to try out a few first especially as flutes can be quite dear

Playing the wooden one rather than the metal one takes a bit of time to get used to. The biggest difference is that you don't have to wait for the keys to move before changing notes. Also you have to get used to a different style of blowing as you don't tongue notes in the same way as you do on a classical flute - it's more of a huff and a click and that takes practice and a bit more blow!

Good luck

Sarah