Bring your homeschooler to the store with you to pick out a pair of safety scissors just for him. Be sure to talk with him about why his safety scissors have a blunt end instead of a pointy end. Let him choose the color or design if there is more than one style to choose from, as this will make him feel involved and help him to get excited about learning to use scissors. If he is left-handed, you will also need to ensure that his scissors are designed to be used by left-handed individuals.
Talk with your child about safety rules in using scissors. She should understand that her fingers should never touch the blade and that she should not run with scissors. She also needs to know how to properly hold scissors while walking so that she will not injure herself or others if she falls. You might write the scissors rules on a piece of paper to be kept with her scissors so that they are easy to see and remember with parental guidance.
Show your child how to properly position his thumb and fingers onto his scissors and then hold his hand into position as you show him how to move his fingers and thumb apart and together in a cutting motion. Do not grasp his hands too tightly, but be sure to have enough of a grip on his hands so that you can be sure that he is safe as he is practicing his cutting motions. Your child can also practice these cutting motions on play dough so that he can get the feel for what it is like to cut something.
When your homeschooler has mastered the basic cutting motion, you are ready to let her practice her new skills on paper. Choose construction paper over white paper at first because it is thicker and easier to manipulate than flimsy white paper. Begin by having your child practice cutting fringe all the way around the edge of a piece of construction paper. Fringe can be spaced far apart to begin, but your homeschooler should reduce the space between cuts as she becomes more proficient.
After your homeschooler has mastered cutting fringe, consider some lessons using cutting worksheets. You can create your own by drawing pictures with dotted lines in various places that your child can cut with his scissors. Straight lines are good at first. As cutting skills become more advanced, you might include some circles. Alternately, you can print a wide variety of worksheets off the Internet using your home printer. Be sure that the ones offered to your child are appropriate to his skill level. You might also provide crayons so that he can color his worksheets as he is practicing his cutting skills.