We let our girlie use tools, handle weapons and play with fire from about the time she could walk. Growing up in the Pagan community and the SCA, she spent a lot of time camping with some very heavily-armed people, including her own blade-wielding, Kung Fu-fighting parents, so these things were a normal part of her environment. We started teaching her the sword as soon as she was big enough to stand and hold a sharpening steel, and she learned to make a fire in the woodstove when she was three.
It's far better to teach children to respect steel and fire at the age when one's watching them like a hawk all the time anyway, and when they're young enough that a little owie makes a lasting impression, than to excite their curiosity by 'protecting' them until they're old enough to run off and experiment with the forbidden on their own.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-05-04 02:47 pm (UTC)It's far better to teach children to respect steel and fire at the age when one's watching them like a hawk all the time anyway, and when they're young enough that a little owie makes a lasting impression, than to excite their curiosity by 'protecting' them until they're old enough to run off and experiment with the forbidden on their own.
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Date: 2010-05-04 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 08:38 pm (UTC)I never want to hear a comment about letting Evangeline chop potatoes again.
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Date: 2010-05-04 09:33 pm (UTC)ha!
Date: 2010-05-05 03:35 am (UTC)Re: ha!
Date: 2010-05-05 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-16 07:33 am (UTC)