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my son (age 4) has used a fork or spoon since he could hold one...so about a year old he actually would feed himself.
as for the knife, he LOVES to use it. i let him handle a butter knife to "cut" his already cut food if he asks. i have also taught him how to eat spaghetti with a fork and spoon, so he is learning that as well.
also i just want to say i LOVE jamie oliver, but why be appalled? i get his meaning, that the food we have available now is HORRID!! but be honest, 99% of us ate sandwiches for lunch every day--and there was never a utensil in the lunchbox.
Reaching back into the dark recesses of my memory, I think being able to use a knife and fork was a 'requirement' of being able to start school at age 5 (in England), just as being able to tie one's own shoe-laces was a requirement. Kids in UK schools sat down to a hot meal at lunchtime, hence the need to be able to use a knife and fork.
I'm now in Australia where kids take a lunch-box to school. My kids' lunch-box usually comprised of a sandwich, a couple of pieces of fruit and a muesli bar. No need for any utensils (besides they surely would have been lost, or could have caused a mishap, either by accident or deliberately).
In my experience, many people in England use utensils with foods that in the US are considered to be finger foods. People routinely use them to eat pizza and fries, and it is not unusual to see people using a knife and fork on a hamburger.
I was most struck that the kids couldn't identify vegetables. At least in the UK, they knew that chips (fries) came from potatoes. That was the only veg that many could name.
For those of us with kids in school (and who pack their lunch), does the lunch you pack for your kids require you to put a spoon/knife/fork inside?
I was just thinking of my kid's lunch and there is a mini-bagel sandwich, juice box, crackers/chips and sliced apples/oranges/berries. I put in a napkin but never a utensil. I was just curious.
I often pack the exact replica of your lunch example for my son. However, sometimes I send canned fruit or sauce, salad, or a leftover. So, yes, I do send untensils with once in awhile. We have managed to pick up some odd pieces of silverware, so I send those just in case they don't come back.
Our eldest (7) hasn't used a knife too much, but we don't eat too many foods that require it, either. Not that we eat finger food--just the types of meals I make require only a fork or spoon.
While on the subject of American food habits, perhaps you will all enjoy this little story from our house:
One night I made an awesome meal that my son loved (really, he was swooning over it), so I sent a replica of it for his lunch the next day: two wild rice-pecan patties (with real, hand-harvested wild rice my mother shipped to me), and organic baby spinach with homemade cranberry sauce on top. But while at school, he decided he would rather have hot lunch (it was hamburgers and fries, but since we are vegetarians, the "hamburger" consisted of white bun, American cheese, iceberg lettuce, tomato, and ketchup), and put the gourmet packed lunch in the slop bucket for the cook's pigs!
That is definitely a story he won't live down. I will be 80 and still telling it!
For those of us with kids in school (and who pack their lunch), does the lunch you pack for your kids require you to put a spoon/knife/fork inside?
I was just thinking of my kid's lunch and there is a mini-bagel sandwich, juice box, crackers/chips and sliced apples/oranges/berries. I put in a napkin but never a utensil. I was just curious.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
I would say about 50/50. She gets leftovers for lunch (we all do), and if it's something like pasta, or chicken n dumplins or chili, then yes she needs utensils; but if we had tacos, or wraps, or sandwiches, then no.
She always has some type of fresh fruit, and either carrots, or celery or broccoli to munch on as well.
I'm so glad someone started a post about that show. I love it and thought of my own situation with my kids and using utensils.
My kids started out with a spoon very early and progressed to a fork at about 1 1/2. My 7 year old still has a hard time with a knife...she saws at stuff until it finally "gives up."
But I think it was amazing to watch that show and see that our country has moved on to finger food and stuff you can eat with your hands. I cook at home a lot and make healthy meals (and admittedly do cut up pieces of meat into smaller pieces) but even I have to admit that we don't often use knives. I do cut a lot of stuff with my fork but we don't do a lot of food that requires a knife.
Anyway...after watching that show, I am going to make an effort to work with my 7 year old on her knife skills. She has been using a fork forever so that's not an issue, but perhaps I'll start having her use a knife to cut things up instead of making things bite-sized.
It's so funny how if I hadn't read 3D's name at the top of the post I would've sworn I wrote it.
Ditto for me,for the most part.Although I also have an almost 4 year old who is working on her knife skills now, her older almost 7 year old brother, is still struggling with the "sawing" action as well.
Pre-school Montessori 'life skills' type work in the classroom helps kids with this type of stuff as well...the kids love being "allowed" to use a knife to cut food up.
As for the lunch packing I'd say about 75% of the time both my kids have forks/knives in their lunch boxes as well as 100% of the time cloth napkins. I haven't bought paper napkins in decades.
And so far neither of them has ever "lost" a utensil or napkin. ....yet
Maybe it's because they don't throw out much of anything from their lunch boxes as I tend to pack everything in their own wee containers as well? I dunno, could be.
I don't pack my kids a lunch for school, because we homeschool, but I do sometimes have to pack a lunch for a field trip or whatever. If I'm going to be there, I throw a knife and a small cutting board into the cooler, because I almost always include fresh fruits and/or veggies... I'd rather not have brown apple slices at lunchtime. If I send the kids alone (without me), though, I pre-cut the fruits/veggies. They know how to use a knife, but I can see how it might make instructors/other parents nervous to have a six-year-old weilding a steak knife to slice up her pepper, LOL. If I pack salads or leftover pasta or something, then I also pack a fork; if it's sandwiches, then no.
We do use knives most of the time at dinner. I don't think I could come up with enough recipes to avoid using knives much of the time... I only don't set them out if we're having pasta with meatballs/sausage, or a stir-fry or something like that.
For those of us with kids in school (and who pack their lunch), does the lunch you pack for your kids require you to put a spoon/knife/fork inside?
I was just thinking of my kid's lunch and there is a mini-bagel sandwich, juice box, crackers/chips and sliced apples/oranges/berries. I put in a napkin but never a utensil. I was just curious.
One of mine is getting sick of sandwiches - and he just won't eat them if he is tired of them, and he needs to eat more calories than he already does - so I have branched out to yogurts and pudding and applesauce, etc.... So usually a spoon goes in the lunch box.
I tried "real" meals in thermos containers, like taco meat with tortillas on the side so they could make tacos, leftover macaroni and cheese, lasagna, etc... and the kids did not like it. They prefer "lunch" foods at lunch, like sandwiches, wraps, fruit and cheese, etc... basically cold, packable stuff.
I'm so glad someone started a post about that show. I love it and thought of my own situation with my kids and using utensils.
My kids started out with a spoon very early and progressed to a fork at about 1 1/2. My 7 year old still has a hard time with a knife...she saws at stuff until it finally "gives up."
But I think it was amazing to watch that show and see that our country has moved on to finger food and stuff you can eat with your hands. I cook at home a lot and make healthy meals (and admittedly do cut up pieces of meat into smaller pieces) but even I have to admit that we don't often use knives. I do cut a lot of stuff with my fork but we don't do a lot of food that requires a knife.
Anyway...after watching that show, I am going to make an effort to work with my 7 year old on her knife skills. She has been using a fork forever so that's not an issue, but perhaps I'll start having her use a knife to cut things up instead of making things bite-sized.
Our kids, 7 and 9 years old, use a fork and spoon on a regular basis. They've done so since they were around 2 or 3. They mostly use table knives for spreading purposes - butter, cream cheese, etc.
They use knives to cut up meat on a less regular basis - most of the time what we serve is fork tender and/or bite size. But, with things like steak, I'll often cut pieces off of my own steak off to share with them rather than giving them their own steak (they only recently acquired a taste for it). Can they use a knife? Yes. But I wouldn't say that either one of them is very adept at it. There is an awful lot of arm swinging and sawing involved...
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