Prepared Kids
I have young (grade school) kids, and though being a dad is one of my all time favorite jobs, I admit to being stressed out about how to best teach them and help them grow in to independent humans.
I don’t want to, nor do I think you should, turn kids in to paranoid little homesteaders who shun technology and wish for a return to the 1800’s. Quite the contrary. I think today is a fantastic time to be alive and the world is full of wonder. But that doesn’t mean you cannot help have prepared kids with every day sorts of things. This doesn’t have to be hard. Or a big deal. Try some of these ideas:
Take Your Kids Camping
Teach Your Kids How to Build a Fire
Play “SnapShot” with your Kids
Build a Bugout Bag with your Kids
Build a First Aid Kit (just for them)
Teach your Kids your Real Name and Phone Number
Get your Kids a headlamp and let them keep it in Their Room.
Take Your Kids Camping
OK, OK… this one is an easy one (meaning easy to write). But it really works. Taking your kids camping, even if it is in your back yard will do wonders for general preparedness. It will teach them how to deal with adversity. It will teach them how to pee in a place that is not ideal. It will teach them how to cook a hot dog themselves on a stick. Having a fire can be a great way to talk about safety, as well! Basically all of the parts of camping help kids realize:
You can get by and be comfortable (safe) without “comforts”
How to know the difference between safe risks and risky risks
How to work together and have a little division of labor (giving them real “jobs” while camping is great)
And more
And you don’t need to do some instagram worthy epic camp spot on a cliff. Just camp in your yard. Or at a KOA. Or pretty much anywhere you can find. If you have never camped before, try to find a family you know that camps and ask to do something local (meaning not multi-day) with them. A lot of times, families will love to teach you and have a fun time of it. So don’t be afraid!
Teach your kids how to build a fire
My kids and some friends camping out in the yard. My children were proud to demonstrate how to build a fire to their awestruck friends! Also… marshmallows.
Do I think that in some sort of a disaster situation, that somehow having a 6 year old that can build a fire is gonna be clutch? Nope. In fact, it would probably be terrible. But there’s something magical about fire that draws families together and causes togetherness. And giving your kids real lessons in fire making will help teach them a measure of safety (fire can and absolutely WILL burn you, so it is obvious you need to be safe, and kids know that) and helps build responsibility. We taught our kids early, and had them try different methods of building a fire. My son prefers the “log cabin” method of stacking wood, and my daughter goes for the “tee-pee” method. But it all works, and they love gathering sticks, and feeding the fire.
One of the skills that I have found really beneficial is what I call “planning your log placement”. Because they helped build the fire, they know that you can’t just throw the log in. But they tend to be afraid of the sparks. So teaching them to think carefully about where the log should go, and then how to get it there, and whether it will roll or whatever. Sort of like calling you pocket in a game of pool, we have the kids show up where they want the log to go before they add it, and that has really helped with patience and thoughtfulness. Not to mention safety.
Play “SnapShot” with your kids
This is one of my absolute favorites. I didn’t come up with this one on my own, rather I got it from this book I bought, called Playful Preparedness by Tim Young.
There’s a bunch of games in that book, and page 18 has the first one, called Snap Shot. The idea is that you tell your kids “Snap Shot” and they know to look around their surroundings and memorize as much as possible, and then close their eyes. Once their eyes are closed, you then ask questions about their surroundings. Nothing crazy or tricky, of course, but things like “What Restaurant Are We In?” or “Point to the Door We Came In.” Stuff like that.
You can ask them anything, of course, but the way I decided to use it is that any time we are in public, I’ll play and inevitably get around to asking where the Emergency Exits are (convenient they always have well lighted signs) and where are the Fire Extinguishers. Now, here’s the “trick”. Of course if I told my kids that we always had to memorize where the emergency exits are, or where the fire extinguishers are, they would either be paranoid, or think I was lame and boring. But by slowly working that in, they learn to subconsciously look for those things. They think they are tricking ME!
We also play this while driving to school, and they know I always ask (after a few tries) what the license plate number is to the car in front of us (or the first letter, or whatever). Or "the name of the road we are on”. Those situational awareness skills will (at least I hope) serve my kids well throughout their lives. And hey, it is fun!
There’s a bunch of other stuff in that book, as well. A lot of it sounds like common sense after reading it, but I agree with almost all of it. There’s games/activities in there we do all the time, though. I never thought to let my kids listen to the NOAA weather scanner report on the radio before that (I, of course, have had a scanner forever, but never thought they’d like it before that book - and they love it!). Tim Young has a game called “Lost In Space” (Game 21 in the book) that talks about pretending you are lost, and seeing if they can get home (with or without a map). That’s not a rocket science idea, but when you read it written out, it is great!
Build a “Bugout” Bag with your kids
The topic of Bugout bags is an enormous one. There are whole sectors of the internet devoted to bugout bags. And to be clear, I don’t think that each kid should be self sufficient. That’s nuts. But, kids need to learn to carry their own (small) load, and be responsible for what’s in their packs. Starting pretty young (about 4 for my daughter, and around 6 for my son) we bought small, light backpacks for each of them and we packed things we would need together.
My kids’ Bugout (or “Go” bags). My son (9) has a slightly bigger one (left) and my daughter’s is on the right. They both happen to be REI, but you can choose literally anything.
For size reference (because packs are always listed in liters), the pack on the left is the REI Link Hydro 10 (meaning 10L - and hydro part means it can accept a drinking bladder), and the one on the right is the REI Tarn 12 (12L). My son is old enough to maybe carry a little more, but these are good sizes for little kids (my daughter is 6). And if I am honest, the 10L is a bit small. REI makes a slightly bigger one called the REI Hydro Link 15, which I will likely upgrade my son to very soon. He is getting big enough to be able to handle a bigger pack pretty easily.
I had them write out things they thought they might need if there was an earthquake (we are in California, so even little kids know about earthquakes… they do drills in preschool even!). When they were little they mostly just thought about stuffed animals. OK, fine. You should have stuffed animals in bugout bags! Then we graduated to a change of clothes. Or a winter hat. Or a jacket. And then.. the SNACKS. That (for us) is what made it stick. They got to choose healthy snacks for their bugout bags, and they knew that you could only eat those special snacks if we were using our bugout bags. We talked about weight, and comfort, and managing what you needed.
See the list my son wrote (years ago now) below. I saved it because I thought it was awesome. I love how kids give instructions “See Back”!
Over the years, we have slowly added things, and given bugout bag snacks in Christmas Stockings, for example.
The other thing we did was add vacuum sealed (I love vaccuum sealers) “loveys” as backups. You can read all about this in the topic I wrote on “Making the Best Kids Bugout Bag” but I’ll write about it here also.
Allow me to explain. When we had kids, I was PETRIFIED of ever getting in to a situation where we were dependent entirely on one special, irreplaceable stuff animal. If we allowed that, and it ever dropped out of the stroller…. oh dear. And if you have ever read the subreddit r/HelpMeFind, you know that many adults are still traumatized by an inability to replace that special stuffie. So my wife and I decided on a plan. We would try our hardest to standardize on something small, packable, repeatable and replaceable. We landed on… loveys from AngelDear.
For my daughter we went with the fox blankie (he is named “Foxy” in our house) and for my son, we went with the Lion, who is called “Mao Mao” (which means kitten in Mandarin - my kids learned Mandarin). And we introduced the concept that there would be multiple Foxies. And Multiple Mao Maos. We started with one, and then once it got traction, we’d swap in a new one, and then add another and so on. Soon enough, ANY Foxy would do the trick. They all got the good smell, and feel, etc. Now, our kids definitely learned the difference between them. But no one Foxy was ever allowed to become the ONE Foxy. And it really helped that both kids had the same size precious sleep item, and that it was airplane travel friendly, etc. I’ll add that AngelDear (the company) knows this super well. You can buy PACKS of those suckers (all sorts of animals). Least your eyes on the greatest packaging and marketing of all time… The “Pair and a SPARE” Lion blankie kit!!!
So what does all of that have to do with bugout bags? Simple. When the kids started making the lists of what they needed, Foxy and Mao Mao were at the top of the list. But we explained to them that we needed this bag to be separate, and came up with the idea that we would have Emergency Foxy! And Emergency Mao Mao! So we bought FRESH ones, and vaccuum sealed them. And they both know, that if there really is an earthquake, they don’t have to worry about the Foxy or Mao Mao in their beds, because we have EMERGENCY FOXY! Ready to roll!
Fest your eyes on EMERGENCY MAO MAO. Vaccuum sealed and ready to bug out!
Our kids have things in their bags like bandanas, masks, water bottles, snacks, a spare set of clothes (vaccuum packed), first-aid kits, whistles, and information cards (laminated) saying their name, and pictures of my wife and I with them, in case we ever got separated. Just saying “I can’t find my dad” is not as good as having a picture and my phone number laminated!
One other thing I’d strongly recommend, because honestly we have used these more than anything else, is compressed towels. Those little white “pucks” that you dribble water on, and they turn in to a washcloth has wound up being one of the absolute most useful things ever. I carry them everywhere now, but my kids love them because not only are they great for a little post-hike cleanup, they are FUN to pour water on and have them expand.
They are called “portawipes” and they come in a box with a whole bunch of them, and they come with those little sleeves, which keep them clean and ready for use. As you can see, my daughter needs to have a couple reloaded from the supply.
You can buy them in bulk, or in the tubes. We have a lot of these, because we use them quite a bit. Check them out HERE.
Teach your kids your real name and your phone number
This probably doesn’t need to be said, but your kids need to know your real name, and your phone number. Even if they don’t have phones (and I hope my kids are teenagers before they get a real phone), they still need to know your numbers. And they need to know your address, too. Like any parent, I live in fear of losing my children in a crowd. But one of the ways to take the edge off that fear (for me) was to teach them our phone numbers, and quiz them on it throughout their lives… a lot.
We have also taught them how to use land lines (yes, yes… I know) because honestly it looks kinda weird if you have never tried to use a land line phone. One of the best places to practice is hotels. We let the kids call us from the land line, and that helps teach how to dial “out”, and how to read the phone for that.
UPDATE: One of my friends read this topic and offered that she taught her girls her phone number by putting it to the tune of “Jingle Bells” and making them all sing it on car rides. I think that is a superb idea. Songs help you remember all sorts of things!
Get your Kids Headlamps and keep them in their rooms
OK, maybe in most places in the world the electricity doesn’t go out all the time. But here in the wealthiest part of the country (Silicon Valley) we have a lovely thing called PG&E. Pacific Gas and Electric. I am not sure if there’s some sort of ranking of worst companies in the history of the world, but PG&E has to rank up there. Decades of greed, incompetence, and mismanagement has caused California to be gripped by a company that has literally blown up a whole neighborhood, and is directly responsible for burning an enormous part of our state. So yeah. Power goes out all the time.
Now, full disclosure, we no longer have this problem, because I have invested (heavily) in Solar and battery backups, but that is more recent.
Breakfast… PG&E style!
For adults, you know the feeling when you are going about your business in the evening, cooking dinner, or whatever, and…. CLICK…. the power goes out. The fridge stops humming, the place goes pitch dark. Well, I don’t know about you, but that freaks me out every time, and I have to catch my breath, call out to make sure everyone is OK, and go get a flashlight. Well, I never realized before having kids that though that is creepy and unnerving for adults, it can be downright SCARY for kids.
So we gave our kids headlamps, and hung them on hooks, or in a place where they knew where they were in their rooms. So the last time that happened, the kids were PUMPED to be able to wear their special headlamps, instead of upset and scared. We even turned it in to a bit of a game. For bonus points, you could actually practice shutting off the main breaker in your house to simulate what it would feel like.
These come in other configurations and colors, but any of these basic Energizer headlamps have served us well
So, what headlamps do I recommend? The cheap ones we like are these by Energizer. They come in different colors (letting kids choose is awesome) and some versions of it have the red LED lamp for “night vision”. I personally never use that, so I don’t love that feature on most of my personal lamps, but the kids love “Settings” and it helps them feel in control. And I will let them sleep with the red light on if they need. These use AAA’s, and come packed with them. And if you read my post on batteries you will know I dislike Duracell in general.
Pelican headlamp glows in the dark (the yellow part). Excellent!
The upgrade pick for me, and the ones my kids love the most is these Pelican Headlamps. I wrote about these also in my discussion of Preparing the Trunk of Your Car as well as Building the Best Kids Bugout Bag, but they are absolutely splendid. They last a long time, have a no fuss button, are comfy, and most fun, the case glows in the dark!!! Which is a really cool feature for kids. They are a little more expensive, but very durable, and something to consider. I let my kids have these now that they aren’t immediately going to lose them.
And I’ll leave you with a picture of that headlamp in my closet after bringing it in from the lighted living room. Pretty great! The green glow is the reflection off the wall (which is off white).
Oh, Oh oh…. it’s maaaagic!
Consider wildfire smoke inhalation
Yes. This is scary. Honestly, the idea of a disaster where I have to strap “gas masks” on my kids makes my blood run cold. But it really could happen. Look at what happened in Hawaii in August 2023 as an example. If you were escaping an inferno, smoke would be your primary concern.
One of the solutions to this problem is… well… a gas mask. But normal ones don’t fit kids.
A couple for you to consider:
And the more industrial version of this (which I have) is a kids size mask from Mira safety (which is an excellent company):