A couple of weeks ago, I read a post where someone mentioned a game they play with their kids..."What would you do if..." and an example of it was "What would you do if you saw smoke in the house and all the adults were outside talking to Mrs. Jones next door?"

I introduced this game to my 3 and 5 year old, and they love it! They ask to play it all the time! I have a hard time thinking up possible scenarios for the kids to think through. Of course the ones for my 3 year old are a little more basic than for my 5 year old. Actually we've played several times over the past couple of weeks and today, I repeated a question for my 3 year old that I first asked the first time we played. My 5 year old said, "Dad, you already asked that one!". Good memory!

It provides a wealth of teachable moments, and points out some flaws in the socialization of our children. For instance, when I asked my 3 year old, "WWYDI a stranger came up to you and asked you if you wanted candy?" My 3 year very politely replied, "I'd say 'please'". Good manners, bad answer! Gave me a chance to suggest an alternate answer for that one <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Anyway thank you to the person who mentioned that idea in the first place!

I'd also like to thank the person who put the idea in my head of spot checking to see if the kidos are carrying important gear. Mine are a little young yet, but I'm trying to teach the idea of EDC, without calling it that. They have small LED flashlights that they like to play with, and so today I told them that we were going to play a new game called "Gear Check". I told them that to play the game, they had to keep their flashlights close by them. Every now and then I'd say, "Gear Check" and if they could hold up their flashlight before I counted to ten (slowly), they would get a favorite piece of (sugar free) candy. This game has been slow going so far, but it has only been half a day.

Anyhow, thanks for the ideas to help me teach my kids about preparedness!

And any suggestions for WWYDI scenarios would be greatly appreciated <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />