Good on you...your boy will definitely be handling himself well when he's older. My boy is 6 1/2 and is still learning the basics, so I don't let him handle anything venomous. They really need to be about 12-13 or so before they are agile and competent enough to handle venomous snakes. My boy knows to always walk around near water and tall grass with a stick ahead of him and keep an eye out for snakes, but he's still under strict orders not to handle any snake he encounters in the wild.
