Thanks for your responses everyone! Sounds like we're all thinking along the same lines. Start 'em young and keep it fun!

We love the "what if" game. His interest in this started when he first watched Rescue Heroes on tv. He's always asking us "what if" and we turn it around on him and ask him what he thinks. It's fun and he retains the information much better when he's thought it through.

To answer your question Sue, I'm not homeschooling but close. I'm at home full-time with my son, and also take care of my nephew (almost 4yrs) and niece (2 yrs) during the day. The boys go to school half days. The preparedness geek (PG) in me was a big part of the reason I chose to leave the corporate world. I wasn't comfortable leaving my son in someone else's care when that someone wasn't a fellow PG.

Great idea about the fire house Blast. I'd never thought about it from that perspective before. I'm going to check it out!

Great idea Clearwater! We did a treasue hunt similar to this in the summer and the boys loved it. We went to a local trail and followed it to a swimming hole at the end. It was a blast and good learning!

Thanks for the link Philip. There's some great info here!

One fun thing I did with the kids was at Easter, I put their candy inside a hardhat (with a new LED flashlight) instead of an easter basket. It helps that my kids think I'm nuts from CERT and all and took it all in fun, but the hardhat was fitted and put beneath their beds along with a pair of shoes and the flashlight. During our twice a year fire-earthquake disaster drills we practice rolling out of bed, getting next to the bed for cover, and putting on shoes and hat before going anywhere (falling bits, broken windows, glass). On his own initiative my youngest keeps his backpacking gear alongside his hardhat ("in case we have to bugger out!"). Smart guy.

Not my idea, I credit one of the coordinators with Washington State emergency preparedness for the Easter hard hat.

> Find a tree, stay with it, blow your whistle three times then wait for voices.
> Repeat until found.

I read a news account a couple of months ago about a little boy who wandered away from the family camp site and got lost. He did stay in one place, but when he heard men shouting his name he didn't respond because his parents had taught him not to talk to strangers.

Of course, he was found and lived to tell his story. Your points 7 and 9 may conflict.

True, so we had to teach her that in an emergency/lost situation it is okay talk to strangers.

One thing I read a long time ago was to give each member a secret codeword. The child can talk to people that know the password, which the parent could give out in an emergency. I think DD1 needs to be a little bit older before we get into that.

-Blast

Kind of suprised to see this on TV but my daughter was watching this the other day:

Lou and Lou the safety patrol

If you want your kids to see it, just go to the: Get Ready, Get Set, Emergency video. (Guess it's a start)

Mark

We had an interesting experience this weekend so I thought I'd follow up this post.

We were visiting relatives and my 4 year old son, 8 year old nephew and husband were going take the atv into the bush on a trail on their propery. Before they left, my son said he wanted to bring his "just in case" backpack. He explained to my nephew that the pack "is just in case we get stuck."

Long story short - they ran out of gas. It was about an hour's hike to get back to the house so this isn't at all a winter survival story. They were very well dressed and we had 2 way radios so could go get them if it was a real emergency. BUT the juice and snacks in that little pack certainly came in handy!

About an hour or two after they got back, I found the two boys digging everything out of the pack and talking about what they could use it for.

Before we left, my nephew asked if he could have his own "just in case pack."

The incident was a great, non-dangerous reinforcement of the basic idea. GREAT!

Sue