Hi all,
I'm sure you get asked this ALL the time, and I've looked below and read your great advice to others already. But I wanted to tap into the tons of experience on here.

I'm new to torts. In my younger years I owned just about every other kind of pet, from multiple parrots, to every kind of herp under the sun (snakes, turtles, geckos, various lizards...and a few years ago I was quite active on other forums here), to the more common stuff like dogs, cats, etc. Right now, we're pet-less aside from a couple of old dogs (who spend their days sleeping). For the past year or so my kids have been really pushing for a pet. They love visiting the grandparents because they've got a zoo... and we think it's finally time to add something to our family.

We decided on a tortoise (for multiple reasons, a couple of the main factors being my daughter's love of all things 'shelled', and the fact that the husband and I wanted a herp, but she'd cry and cry if we had to feed live food). So, I'm wondering what you all would recommend for someone like me... like I said, I have a TON of herp experience (I actually worked at a reptile zoo for a while), but no direct experience with tortoises. My husband is building an enclosure (we're in northern Ontario, so our tort will be primarily indoors, except for a couple months in the summer) and our accomodations will be about 4'X1.5' We'd like a species that's not shy and is maybe more active, as the kids LOVE to watch animals move around, etc. My daughter (3y.o.) will be helping to feed/water, etc (she LOVES doing this at grandma's house with all the geckos and bunnies), so a species that will tolerate the presence of a child is essential.

There's a possibility of more space for him down the road as well (we're in the early planning stages of some renovations and a larger enclosure can theoretically be eventually incorporated into that). We're also not terribly particular about whether they hibernate or not - we'll work that out.

So, your suggestions?

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