I think at every meal its important to let them try, and then if they can't you can take over. Its like practicing. And also allowing the kids to help with chopping in the kitchen (with either a plastic salad knife or plastic disposable knife - but still supervised) also helps them to learn knife skills.

DD can use a knife some things she finds difficult but I still let her try and praise her for her efforts. I think its an important skill that supposedly is lost on our kids generation (which are known as the knife & fork kids) a few media articles have been released to suggest this. Its a skill we all need and they also need time to perfect it!

But how funny is this - my DS who can use forks and spoons well (not so bothered with knives but does chop up veg for me in the kitchen) can use CHOPSTICKS! When we go to Yum Cha he picks them up and uses them fine, and the other night when we went out for dinner at a vegetarian asian restaurant DS picked up the chopsticks and used them with preference... even with RICE! And all because when we go out we let him try. I didn't learn to use chopsticks till I was probably 10-11, before then it was the ole' rubber band trick LOL!