[sgtcallistan]

One of my group's campaigns had characters who began as children, had a few memorable incidents such as:
the bard telling a scary story,
death of a relative and how it's explained to them,
a druid visiting to see who has been learning their lessons, who has not, and who is worthy of the presents he brought. (Lessons in their own culture)

When a year or two short of adulthood, the GM took the time to have simple adventures like:
meet and talk with most of the character's relatives,
get some of the beer available at the chieftain's feast,
watch over cows when the rival village might send people to steal them,
practise a weapon skill secretly with the relative who wants you to succeed as they did,
attend the spring festival so that they notice / get noticed by another family's son / daughter,
get hints and perhaps more about how the rites of adulthood will go depending on how much the teller understood,
encounter a rival / enemy who will remember you without favour,
explore beyond the area you know, get into trouble, do you have the wit to bring something back that proves what you did?

All this is to educate the player in the character's culture, myths and legends, as well as the known world and even subjects like the stars and planets; their future paths in their society, even a divination of their destiny or geases to influence their behaviour depending on quirks, advantages and disadvantages.

This above was the beginning of our fantasy game, and it's been very successful, we've played it on and off for years.

Hope this is useful.