Nice small steps getting up. I wish the younger cats I train would pick up on the small stuff more often, and the ones that do catch things like that usually excel quicker. This is a great tree for teaching, it's got a little of everything goin'. ~Best
Good practice tree as you state but if you want to practice go as high as you can maybe just slightly out of your comfort zone to help prepare you for those ones where you have to cut a baby top.