Hello all. I have been visiting this forum and website for a few months now and I thoroughly enjoy it simply because I love the survivalism mentality. That aside, I want to learn more because I want to be prepared as much as possible. All the info is overwhelming though. Can someone tell me what an EDC is? I have packed a PSK, but I don't see where that is useful since I rarely go out in the wilderness. I live in the suburbs in upstate New York. However, I feel that skills are good to have anyway. Here's my main question though...I am a homeschooling mom and I want to teach my boys stuff about survival also. We have already learned how to build a fire and have gone on hikes at the state park and nature trails in our area. I wonder if it is useful to teach them morse code. What else would any of you suggest that we learn together?
Incidentally, we are on our own in this pursuit...my husband thinks it is wierd and useless, so I just keep it to myself now. Well i hope I didn't ramble too much... <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Newbie: Here's a copy of material I posted last year. This is how I had it figured out after monitoring the list for a year or so. Hope it helps.

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I've been reading Doug's work and collecting lists of people's kits. I like to fiddle with categories and definitions, and this is what I came up with.

TYPES OF KIT

EDC: Every Day Carry. Gear you carry and often use every day. These items are typically in your pockets or in easy-to-reach storage. Items that are carried only in preparation for emergencies (like a metal match) are still EDC if they're not packed in a kit.

PSK: Personal Survival Kit. Gear you carry every day, but do not generally use. The gear is carried in preparation for emergencies or crises, and is packed in a sealed kit. This gear is the stuff it would be hard to do without for ANY length of time in a crisis, but does not include food, water, clothing, or extensive shelter.

BOB: Bug Out Bag. Gear and consumables intended to completely support you in a given environment for a specific period of time. The most common BOB is constructed to get you home or to a safe haven and to sustain you for three days.

CATEGORIES OF GEAR

I rethunk Doug's categories to suit my own preferences and to conform to the three-priority model of survival: Shelter (3 hours), water (3 days), food (3 weeks). Here's the list of categories, in descending order of priority:

First aid
Shelter
Fire starting
Signaling
Water purification
Food gathering
Tools

First aid is an even higher priority than shelter, because if you bleed out there's no point in keeping your body temperature up.

Shelter and fire starting sort of smoosh into each other. Fire is so important for water and food preparation and for mental health that it comes between shelter (which it augments) and water.

Okay. You're healthy and sheltered and even warm. Within the next few hours you might bring the whole sorry incident to an end if you get rescued. So signalling comes next. In theory, I've still got a day or two before water becomes critical.

Water - storage and purification - items come next, followed by food gathering supplies. These categories might even include water and food supplies when in a BOB.

The last category is outside the priority order of the list. Tools are all the goodies that have more general purposes than the items in the other six categories. Tools is also my "miscellaneous" category.

This stuff is just a mental exercise, but maybe someone will find it useful.

Bear
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Since then, I've come to think of navigation and illumination as belonging to the signalling group. This broadens the group to include all "intelligence" sorts of tool and function. It's purely arbitrary though.

Bear

From the children side:

I was a kid and was trained by Duke of edinburgh award, parents, outdoor survival schools and scout association


The best training ground is with your parents and the scout association

If your boys WISH (don't force) top go to scouts find out what they get up and try and get an outdoor based unit!

Buy your boys a small swiss army knife and teach them the correct and safe way to use it-this should be one of your first lessons this is the only time you can "teach" this is because of the dangers of knives and because if they are like any other kid they will be so excited by the knife they won't mind!!

After this show them hoe to use a whistle and the international distress signal! In a fun gamely way!

Play games and make it fun!

Personally i don't believe that morse code is that useful and it CAN quite easily turn into a lesson which is very boring!!!

Keep going back to fires and have little challenges to see who can light fires with minimum matches, smallest amount of tinder etc. And each marshmallows round the fire(most kids love food)

My final note would be - you know YOUR kids the best so YOU know what drives them so you can target and taylor your sessions around this

BUT don't make it boring-if they are not interested give up on the oTHER hand if they ask for MORE feed this!!!

just my thoughts

Mark

Hey, great to hear you're doing right by your kids. too bad about hubby.

anyway...

one of the most important things for my and my wife is practical survival tests. basically, take your extended kit, throw it in the car and spend the night somewhere indoord at first, outdoors later. It can be a hotel or motel, but the rules are simple for the indoor checkout - if you didn't pack it and bring it with you, you can't get it. One night of that will put into perspective what you need, and you still get to sleep in a warm hotel room.

I'm a ham radio operator and I can assure you that Morse code is useless, with the exception of SOS which is ... ---- ...
(3 short, three long, three short)
there you've learned all the morse code you need.

If they want to learn basic singnalling, that will take all of a day for them to learn it - there's not much to it.

More importantly is the ability to improvise, to make do and to get along without comfort.

Some familiarity with guns can't hurt for both hunting and self-defence. I learned to shoot when I was 5, and never stopped learning.

I'd also suggest lots of camping trips - the Aidorondaks still have some pretty remote areas. You can start easy - Raquette Lake is a good place - and then work up to more rugged terrain from there.

Of course, this site is probobly the best place to meet and converse with others who have a rational interest in survival issues, without getting all wrapped up in the freak-out collapse of society sort of preparedness stuff out there.

Your sons may also be interested in local Search and rescue operations,. these are good for skills building.

My thanks to those who have responded. So far, so good!

Welcome aboard!

Something that I've found repeated in several threads on these forums that makes perfect sense to me, it that one of the best tools to have is KNOWLEDGE. It weighs nothing & in general lasts quite a while (although refreshing and practicing the knowlege & skills is suggested).

Hmmm...while I'm not proficient in it, I do believe that Morse Code is worthwhile to learn. Yes, it is no longer the big stumbling block for a HAM liscense that it used to be, and it may be used less now than before, but, it still has its uses (in my opinion). Imagine being stuck in a position where whistles and voices cannot be reliably heard, in the dark where semaphore and sign language is not likely, suddenly Morse makes more sense.

Sign language is another tool that can be useful, more so in an urban environment. Personal story: My wife was a Girl Scout leader for many years. One of the things that she taught the girls was sign language, there were many humorous conversations between cars while taking the troop on camping trips. <img src="images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Just my $.02.

I will put in a vote for Scouts. Particularly since you stated your husband is not interested. It will give your kids an opportunity to see other adults, particularly Dads, who do have interest and show your kids this is not just a Mom thing.

I would recommend the Boy Scout Field Guide, not Handbook. My favorite is the 1969 edition available for about $10-$15 in used book stores, flea markets, antique dealers, and garage sales. Excellent pictures of KIDS doing stuff. Written in a language appropriate for kids.

I am a member of a SAR team and will second that is another good way to get your kids to become self reliant. Due to legal restrictions, they will not be able to respond on their own but can be accompied by an legal guardian. For more information check out the NASAR website for training. Contact your local Emergency Management. (check the blue pages of your phone book under govt) to find local SAR teams. Dogs require constant training. Dog teams always need people who will come to the training and go hide so the dogs have someone to find. Kids make great victims and love playing hide and seek with the dogs.

"Ground Pounders" or people searchers who once complete basic training only need to refresh skills. For a training book on equipment selection, skills to learn, and basic survival techinques for a 72 hour stay on their own, get the NASAR text for the Fundamentals of SAR class.

Civil Air Patrol is another posibility of organized people who are self reliant. Might have to be more teen age or older to participate. Not sure on that one.

Fire Departments and Rescue squads spend a lot of time sitting around the station waiting for a call. They are generally very happy to give tours and talk about their equipment and training. This may not be an ungoing training session but might make a neat "field trip" for your kids. Some departments sponsor a Venture Scout troop. Basically coed Boy Scout program for 14-21 yr olds. They would be familiar with working with kids. My kids love going to the fire station and climbing all over the equipment. We occasionally let kids of members attain our training and use them as victims. The kids like the attention and have a better understanding of what might happen to them in the event of accident.

I would heartily recommend membership in a competent SAR group. There may some variation with respect to use of underage volunteers. In Arizona, our teenagers responded on their own, with prior signed parental approval to participate in operations.

We had operations where boys and girls started out, and returned as men and women. Incredibly good for everyone, including the victim. My experience hs been that teens respond better if you pull them out of their peer group, and put them in a real world situation where they are expected to show maturity. They almost always do.

"where boys and girls started out, and returned as men and women"

Hopefully you mean they overcame difficult obstacles and challenging situations which forced them to mature mentally rather than putting the "water container" in the PSK to use. <img src="images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

I agree that teenagers are seldom put in a situation where people truely rely on them to perform. SAR can be real life and death situations where you have to make decisions without all the data you would like. The right decisions save lives, the wrong decisions put both the SAR team and the victim in jeopardy. Through proper training and given opportunities to lead with adults to fall back on, teenagers will make good choices and accomplish extrodinary things.

Instilling a sense the need to give back to the community through voluteering is an important skill to teach our children and young adults

I was trying to be non-sexist - no hanky panky was involved.