We've been trying to encourage good table manners lately, and have been really encouraged by how well the kids have taken to it!

One thing I've noticed though is that our two year old often struggles to eat her food with a fork and will just use her hands (or ask for help, and then we will help feed her with a fork). I'm totally fine with that. The trickier case is our (almost) four year old. He eats food like pasta or pancakes with a fork, but if the food is hard to eat with a fork (sometimes fish won't hold together on a fork) or if it's something he can grab (like a hot dog), then he will switch over to using his hands.

I feel comfortable that given her current skill level, two years old is too early for our daughter to stop eating with her hands. But I'm not sure how to think about our four year old. Both kids don't eat that much, so I have been reluctant to insist too strongly that they use utensils 100% of the time. But at the same time, we do want to encourage good manners.

So my question for you guys is: when did your kids start using forks/utensils exclusively to eat? How did the progression go... did you encourage them to stop using their hands, or just wait for it to happen naturally?