Good one Blast!

Our girls have started learning how to use a knife beginning at about age two. When we go camping, the kids get to make, maintain, monitor and put out their own fire. They have to do it collaboratively so that we don't have fires everywhere. An adult is always monitoring and scolding, er, I mean teaching.

We have even had ax safety and usage "classes" for the kids at camp. I think the youngest kid to chop some would was about three. The big thing is to make them stop before they actually get tired. They think they can still go on, but attention and safety will start to slip if they don't stop.

I think sometimes the kids are safer than some adults. Last time at camp, one of the moms asked me to borrow my knife. It happened to be a Falkniven F1. I handed it to her handle first. When she was done, she called me over and said she was done and shoved it back to me...blade first. She almost stabbed my hand. So I had to scold, er, teach her safe handling of knives. Her husband would only nod and smile. He was smart enough to keep his mouth shut otherwise she probably would have let him have it.

Many parents don't even let their kids play and I think that is a shame. I call my girls my monkey princesses, not just because they will climb anything, but because my wife called me the monkey king. Not because of my looks or prehensile body parts, but after the monkey king in Chinese folklore. For some reason, my wife thinks I was (and still am) mischievous.