Prepping With Children: Getting The InterestedIt is a perfectly fine, pleasant Tuesday evening. You are playing with your children in the park. Your son is climbing up to the slide while your daughter is whooshing in the air on the see saw. A perfect day until an Earthquake strikes! One minute, this one minute will be changing your entire world. Your evenings may never be this perfect again.

When we are in our happy moments we never realize that they may never last forever. It is always good to be prepared for the worst, to be prepared for survival in situations filled with despair. As adults, survival for you may not be this big of a challenge as opposed to your young children in the same situation. As elders, parents and guardians it is our duty to prepare our children- teach them how to survive. The question however is, how to prepare them?

Stay Calm

Children can sense the urgency in a parent’s tone. Take survival preparation seriously but let it not scare your children. If they are scared they might not pay attention to your instructions or be involved the way you want them to be.

Make it Engaging

To gather the interest of children it is important to keep them involved. Involvement for kids comes in the form of fun. You can make prepping fun for your kids by starting a prepping story. Build a story where they get to be the characters. Put forward survival challenges and show them how to succeed.

Let them know where to head to incase things go wrong. You can also the kids for a weekend in the woods, a family trip. In this camping trip show them how to connect with their surroundings, look for food, learn to fish and learn to hunt. Kids of today are dependent on technology. On this trip show them what life without technology is. Engage them in maps and compasses!

Prepare a first aid kit and teach them how to tackle small emergencies such as cuts and falls. Moreover, find survival books for children and discuss stories such as that of Robinson Crusoe. These stories and books will inspire them. Hear them out. Talk to them. Listen to their fears and comfort them. Their opinions may give you some ideas too.

Let Them do Some Storage and Cooking

When you head out to the store to shop for your survival food storage, take them along. Let them select the food. Foods such as dried food, vegetable powders, fruit powders are survival essentials, tell them why they are important. One of the best ways to store food is to grow vegetables and fruits in your back yard.

Involve them in the gardening so that they know why that this is their essential to survive. Moreover, involve the kids in cooking too. Teach them recipes that are easy so that they can survive on their own when need comes. However, do not assign everything to them. Take it slowly. Too many responsibilities may push them away.

Let Them Master the Art of Hygiene

Germs and bacteria are harmful species that affect humans. Children are more prone to them due to their weak immune system. In survival situations getting sick can be harmful.

The best way to prevent falling sick is to take care of hygiene and sanitation. Talk to children about the importance of hygiene, the importance of washing hands, showers, why towels should not be shared, why using sanitizers is Important, wiping themselves,  teach them about the skills to use a public bathroom and other such skills.

Healthy children can survive germs. However to be healthy, children must know why hygiene is emphasized on.

While preparing your children, you have to realize that you job as a parent is not over. While they prepare for survival, you have to make the necessary arrangements for them too.

Food

Children have a different dietary requirement. Look at your children and store the food that you think will be the most important for them. For infants stock up formula milk as a mother may not be able to breast feed her child all day. For growing kids stock powder milk, dried fruits and organic food.

The stock you have may deplete thus you should know how to hunt, fish and gather so that with your assistance the children can survive.

Water

Water is essential to survival. Staying dehydrated is very important. While preparing for survival make sure you have stored water enough to sustain you and the kids. Storage bottles are very handy for this job.

Pack Emergency Kits

As parents, it is your job to pack their emergency kits that will ensure their survival. Pack their clothes, blankets, one of their favorite toy (so that they feel safe), medicines and other such important tools. Carry cards or board games so that they have something to stay entertained. Also give them communication devices and radios so that they can be aware.

Having a family is the best feeling in the world, but imagining them in tough times can tear you apart. You cannot stop something wrong from happening but you can equip your loved ones with the power to tackle such situations. This power only comes from preparation. Hence to survive, teach them to how to prepare!

“This article was contributed by James Smith, an avid prepper with a passion for self-protection at all levels”


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Dale
Dale

Survival and being prepared should not only be a passion, it should be a lifestyle. The definition of a prepper is "An individual or group that prepares or makes preparations in advance of, or prior to, any change in normal circumstances, without substantial resources from outside sources" Like the Government, police etc. I don't believe that the end of the world will be the "end of the world" I believe it will be the end of the world as we know it now. You can also find me on Google Plus and Twitter

    1 Response to "Prepping With Children: Getting Them Interested"

    • Heartless

      Whereas I agree that kids should be taught all that is possible about preparedness, I am old-school. The first step is in having obedient, responsible and reality-grounded children. Without the modern concept of being ‘friends’ with your children. Preparedness should start within the home. From the beginning they, the kids, should follow the original mandate “honor your Mother and Father”. They should trust that whatever is asked of them, expected of them is correct, right and just. Setting a good example is the simplest way to achieve that. Most children, normal children, wish to please their parents and emulate the deeds, ways and traditions that their parents also exhibit. Those same are the entry points into any educational process by the parents for their offspring.

      Fun? I suppose preparedness can be made ‘fun’. To a small extent only though. Pride in work, hard work, directed efforts for the family and thereby themselves to benefit from should be of more value than any notion of entertainment. The simple basics of what it means to be of a prepared mindset – water, food, shelter, medical needs, clothing, livestock, hunting, fishing, growing crops…….. should be the equally simple reasons understood for all that they are being shown how to do.

      I’d encourage any meaningful question, expect each child to be responsible for the task set to them. Make clear the results of failure and what it would mean in reality. Too, make certain that they always know that nothing is gained without effort that has any worth.

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