I’m well aware that many people may think I’m crazy, but recently, I’ve been helping Gracen learn how to safely use sharp knives while cooking. She’s been helping in the kitchen since shortly after her first birthday, and is becoming an expert pourer, mixer, peeler, and grater, so this felt like a natural next step. I fully subscribe to the notion that children, even wee ones, are very capable little human beings… More so than we often give them credit for. So, given her kitchen experience, her ability to follow instructions, and her generally cautious nature, I felt like she was ready. Plus, I sort of feel that being handed a cucumber to cut and a butter knife to do the job must feel a little insulting.
Wouldn’t you trust this innocent little face? ☺
When she’s practicing her cutting skills, I like to give Grae my favourite tomato knife. It’s quite sharp, but it doesn’t have a pointed tip and it doesn’t seem to easily puncture the skin – perhaps because it’s serrated? I also make sure to give her soft foods that have at least one flat side (no rolling) and are long and thinnish (more space for holding).
So far, we’ve been focusing on holding the food at the far end and really being aware of where the knife is in relation to her little fingers.
This morning, while we were at the grocery store, I let Grae pick out what she wanted to cut. First on her list was cantaloupe.
She also selected a dragon fruit and a couple of kiwi fruits…
Perfect for a fruit salad! Overall, she’s doing really well with it. I still always stay close to her and monitor her chopping carefully, and I did ask her to slow down a little bit today, but for the most part, she can safely use a sharp knife on her own.
The best part is how proud she is of herself. Chopping up all the fruit for a big bowl of fruit salad while using a sharp knife = official big girl status.
♥
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Today Gracen’s 
Gone are the crunchy leaves, dried out sunflowers, mini pumpkins, new apples, and shedding cattails…
And in are the bare branches, pinecones, evergreen limbs, and dried red berries.
If we’re striving for accuracy, the title ‘Christmas shelf’ would probably be more appropriate at this point, but we’re sticking with ‘nature shelf’ because soon enough all of the little Christmas extras (many of which were mine when I was little) Miss G carefully selected and added will be tucked away until next year and we’ll be back to having shelves filled with plain ol’ nature things.
And because we don’t have quite as many wintery things as we did autumn-y things, we decided to use the bottom shelves for seasonal books, which Gracen loves having on display.
Over the course of the last week, Gracen has been very into collecting “autumn sings (things)”. At first, I thought we’d use the items to make a couple of art projects and a sensory bin (which we did), but the collection grew so quickly and became so diverse that I decided a special area to display and admire her beautiful nature items was needed.
So this morning, we started out by taking down Grae’s 
Grae and I started emptying our bags and filling up the shelves (being the little organizer she is, she of course wanted all similar items together, so I was very lucky to be granted permission to split up the apples/corn/pinecones into a couple of different areas). As she started to try and stand her tree branches upright along the wall, I realized that Great Great Grandma Amy’s vintage mason jars would display them beautifully.
Our items came from a variety of spots… Most of the leaves, branches, and twigs were found while walking around visiting parks in our neighbourhood in Vancouver. The baby pumpkin and dried corn were found on our 
When we were all done emptying and arranging, the end result was a cute little autumn-inspired corner in G’s room where she is free to explore nature at any time.
So far, she seems to enjoy rearranging her items and reading in front of the shelf most.