the learning curve

My 9 year old is pretty keen on the outdoor survival stuff - loving fire and knives! His birthday wish is for a pocket knife so during our camping trip he wanted to prove that he was responsible enough to own one. So he was taught and shown and eventually he got down to whittling a piece of wood.

His cries alerted us that something had happened and we found him at the river's edge clutching his hand with blood splatted pretty well everywhere. Eventually we discovered that he had cut his finger (quite deeply) and that he had rushed to the river to wash away the blood. When he discovered that the blood was just not going to stop that easily - he had started to cry.

He was so upset and mortified at himself while we thought that he had proved he was not responsible enough to own a knife. Then he explained that he hadn't slipped and cut himself but it was when he was putting the blade away that it sprung on to his finger, cutting him.

We had told him how to use the knife but not how to be very careful closing it - it was a sharp learning curve for us all...