Daddy Date: Whittlin'

James has been told that if he responsible enough he will get a pocket knife on his 10th birthday. So since time she-is-a-flyin, and James is 8 now, I figured I'd better start really teaching him about knife safety.

Knife safety is something that on the surface might be no brainer stuff, but it's more about creating good habits. To this day I still use knife handling habits that my dad taught me.

At the Dollar Tree he decided to get a Charleston Chew, he read on the side that you can put it in the freezer to make it hard candy, and we did that, it was cool, it actually shattered in our mouths. He also split it into 4 equal pieces so the whole family could have some. James is always doing that, always looking for ways to share. Especially with his sister, he loves her so much.

So in the effort to teach him I will teach him how to make a simple (VERY SIMPLE) spear.
the first lesson I taught him was how to handle a knife. One of the first things I told him was how to hand or be handed and knife to someone. The general rule of thumb is, that when a person hands you a knife, the hand-er is not to let go of the knife until the hand-ee says 'thank you' indicating that he has the knife firmly. We practiced this a few times, and he got the concept well. In fact we started letting James cut his own meat recently at the dinner table and I tested him a few times with this and he passed with flying colors.

I wanted to show him how to make a good basic spear, which involves burning the tip so it doesn't split. He enjoyed making a small fire and watching the tip get black. He did a very good job, he was extremely careful and safe. He was thinking about every cut, and having a ball.