Show a child how to use a knife.

[james terrio]

Something we've used with Cub Scouts to work on knife safety and hand placement while not putting a knife in their hands is to use a bar of Ivory soap and a popsicle stick. The Ivory soap is soft enough for the popsicle stick to carve it.

That's a great idea! Excellent way to get youngsters used to using edged tools with no risk of the little ones doing an "oops" and getting hurt.

My soon-to-be-11 daughter knows how to sharpen a pencil, cut her food, and other basics tasks with an actual sharp knife. She has her own little Victorinox with pretty blue handles and blades/scissors etc I showed her how to use properly. She likes my Mora Clipper a lot, and I think she'll be getting her own very soon.

Perhaps more importantly, she knows how to safely hand a knife or any other tool to someone else. She knows to cut away from herself and sit still and use her whistle if she gets lost in the woods. She also knows safety goggles are mandatory in Daddy's shop, how to light the grill or a campfire, and how to feed and water our cats. To me that's just basic stuff every kid should know.

I take no credit for any of that, it's just stuff my parents and grandparents taught me.
It wasn't hard to teach her this stuff, we had fun and in later years we'll just think of it as good memories/quality time.

Her school friends and teachers, sadly, don't generally know these things. Most of them are deathly afraid of knives, thinking they're vicious weapons that will jump up and kill someone just by being in the same room

I salute you folks that work with scouting groups etc., to teach our kids these basic life skills.