5 Creative Ways to Teach Preparedness to Your Child
Ask any survival-minded adult why they’re into preparedness, and they’ll likely offer at least a half-dozen reasons. Ask a child why there’s a closet filled with cans of tuna and buckets of wheat, and there’s no telling what answer they’ll give. Depending on what they’ve been taught, those supplies may be a constant reminder of a foreboding future, full of threats and uncertainty. On the other hand, stored food, stockpiled ammo, and 55 gallon water containers may be accepted as a natural part of life, along with the understanding that these supplies exist to help out in an emergency.
Children fear what they don’t understand. When a difficult concept such as preparedness is presented in a creative way, at their level, it helps them feel reassured and satisfied. Here are five creative ways to teach this concept to your children in ways that will reinforce important concepts and include a lot of fun along the way.
- When you explain your preparedness efforts, use examples from children’s literature that children of all ages can relate to. The story of Joseph from the Bible is an excellent example of preparing for difficult times and then being able to provide for others in need. The Little House on the Prairie book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder follows a pioneer family through good times and bad. Each book is a great source of information about practical skills from hand-stitching to making homemade butter to smoking wild game as well as great examples of self-sufficiency. If your children are very young, Little House picture books are available at the library and in bookstores.
- Teach practical skills. Kids should know how to cook, clean, and scrub the kitchen floor! Learning how to mend ripped jeans or do laundry isn’t child abuse. They’re real life skills that teach independence and instill a healthy work ethic. Older children can be taught target shooting, how to put up a tent and how to start a campfire. I’m all in favor plentiful play time, but children also need to learn skills and knowledge that are truly worth learning.
- Children naturally love learning about animals and there’s no better source for examples of preparedness than the animals they’re already familiar with. Bears, squirrels and other forest animals get ready for the winter. Geese begin a long trek south when they sense that cold weather is near. Did you know that prairie dogs purposely mound up the earth around the entrances to their homes so rain doesn’t flood their burrows? My own children love The Burgess Book of Animals, which uses entertaining stories to teach facts about dozens of animals.
- Keep an eye on current events. Don’t focus on details that might terrify your kids, but if the Weather Channel is reporting on an approaching hurricane, for example, talk about the steps families in those areas should be taking.
- Participate in activities that teach or reinforce preparedness. Scout programs and 4-H are ideal for children to learn some terrific practical skills and socialize with other like-minded kids. You just can’t beat that combination.
Everyone loves learning something new, especially when there’s fun involved. Keep your lessons about preparedness casual, creative, and fun. Your kids will discover the future isn’t something to be feared and will figure that everyone in the neighborhood must also have boxes of freeze-dried food under every bed!
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Thanks Lisa,
The thanks goes to you! Great article btw.
On my way over!
Back when my now 22 year old was young, the computer game "The Oregon Trail" was one tool I used. It took him a few tries to figure out that he died a few days after leaving a river because he had no water barrels……
That computer game is still out there! In fact, I bought it last year for my daughter. Lots of good lessons in setting priorities, planning ahead, and thinking outside the box.
OMG! I remember The Oregon Trail!
My kids refer to the stored food as the Grocery Store in the Basement. When I run out of something in the pantry, I ask them to run down to the grocery store and grab what we need. Usually ketchup. They love that job!
My 5 year old still remembers when we lost power for a week due to Hurricane Ike (1.5 years ago)…he remembers that we didn't have running water and couldn't watch TV…but he also remembers listening to 'smooth jazz' on the emergency radio at bedtime and playing board games by oil lamp.
It's all how you spin it, right? It can be doom and gloom or one big adventure.
Andrea, I love your last sentence! Whether or not our kids are terrified about dad losing a job or their family having to move or a big storm moving in depends on how we parents handle the situation.
Andrea,
My husband nicknamed our storage "Mom-mart." Our 9 and 11 year old boys get a kick out of the name!
Lisa,
Totally agree with your article. It was only a few decades ago that being prepared was considered normal. My grandmother still buys 25 lbs. of sugar every year, for canning fruits and jellies. It is only recent that we've become a fast food, instant satisfication group of selfish brats. If we can't get "IT" NOW we become impatient. Some people even become angry or panic. I personally give society 3 days, without creature comforts, before it breaks down into chaos. Especially if there's no warning, for those not paying attention.
Three days is probably about right. I mean, I've been in the middle of an angry crowd at Disneyland when they announce that fireworks have been cancelled!! If they ALSO couldn't buy their favorite Mickey Mouse ice cream bar, all hell would break loose!
BTW – My BIGGEST fear is that "the big one" will hit the morning of laundry day. I'll be surrounded by mountains of dirty clothes! Please don't let the SHTF on Thursday!!!! ROFL!
Laundry is very much my weakest link. Maybe that's a good reason to stock Bug Out Bags for everyone with at least two changes of clothes, just in case we have to rush out the door and no one has any clean underwear to pack!
Dark chocolate is great. If you're tired, the caffeine will give you a virtually instant boost but it won't keep you awake in the middle of the night like soda or coffee. At least, that's my experience.
Just one more reason to stockpile chocolate. :O)
It IS all in the way you spin it! Our DDs kids are used to pulling out the small battery tv set/ dvd and watched it by candle light. No big deal. One time we found out when we got up that the water waS OFF. We all were only 15 minutes late for a meeting with all of us showered by making use of water storage and a pump sprayer.
Rich
I got another idea, get your kids into building forts! I used to make a lot of forts out of lots of different stuff when I was a kid. Got me outside and doing problem solving too. It is a great way on introducing kids on how to make an outdoor shelter. Maybe a good way to teach them how to make a good shelter.
Raven, I like the way you think! Just think of all the skills and planning involved. My son makes intricate military vehicles out of empty soda cans — same thing. Lots of thinking, planning, and learning how to make adjustments when one idea or another doesn't work out. Thanks for the suggestion!
I used to do that a lot when I was a kid. My favorite things to use were old folding lawn chairs, blankets and clothes pins. Take a couple of lawn chairs, unfold them, turn them on their sides and push them together to make a box like structure. There you have your walls! Then take a couple of old blankets and lay them over the top for a roof. Clothes pins are to secure the blankets in place. Just leave a space open for a "door" to crawl in and out of.
Inside the house, or with little, little kids, blankets, pillows and couch cushions make good forts too. Makes for a lot of fun out of boring rainy days. Can also make it a family thing by adding in a flash light and snacks, and you have a good setup for making up stories!
Winter time we made walls, caves and tunnels from the snow piles in the middle cul-de-sac made by the snowplows.
I even had a small kid size tent that I could set up and take down myself. Made for a nice little place to play in. Maybe as they get older, teach them the more serious kind of shelter building skills like setting up a real size tent or making a natural emergency shelter, supervised of course. Who knows, you might have a little carpenter on your hands.