If the knife block is the biggest concern, you might want to keep them in a locked drawer (I know, bad for the knives) - you can get kid-proof latches that install into them, or the more hardcore magnet locks. We've never really had trouble with knives because the kids have seen the results of mishandling them (a carrot got away from me while the kids were watching, it was just ugly enough to put a fear of knives into them) but we keep ours in a fiddly-to-open top drawer anyway, because yeah, there was virtually no place for a knife block to live with us that was not also easily accessible to a curious kid. There's a lot to be said too for "out of sight, out of mind," especially at this age.