There is often not much difference between wandering off and being in the woods for a young child. All their personal references are gone.

Six is a good age to start playing the "What-If" game. Get them used to thinking what they would do if Mom and Dad weren't around and they found themselves in some common type of situation. This isn't a game where you TELL them what to do. You ask and actually LISTEN to their responses; it will also give you some insight on their thought processes.

You can also alternate the question-asking: you ask him one and work it out, then he can ask you one, and do the same, giving him multiple possibilities, or asking if he could think of something better.

Some of their answers will be ludicrous, many will be based on how they've interpreted what they've seen on TV (including cartoons). So have a two-way conversation, gently leading them to think in a rational manner.

You can play the game wherever you are, working it into the current situation and location.

* What would you do if you woke up tomorrow morning and no one else was home?

* What if you smelled smoke in the house, but couldn't see anything burning?

* What if (neighbor kid) said, "Let's walk down the RR tracks", or "Let's throw rocks at cars"?

* What if (friend) got his dad's handgun out and was playing with it?

* What if you couldn't wake up the babysitter?

* What if you saw the elderly neighbor lying on the ground in front of her house or on the sidewalk?

* What if an adult or older kid asked you if you wanted to go see some puppies and he would give you one?

* What if you saw the neighbor's toddler in the street?

Eventually, start incorporating actual lost/short-term survival scenarios into the quiz, and include some common equipment that he would probably find interesting: how to flash a mirror correctly, how to stop moving around (aka 'hug a tree') and blow his whistle in threes if he got lost in the woods outside a campground, how to honk the horn in threes if you fell down and hit your head, how to use a flashlight to attract attention. Etc.

As time goes by, start adding actual short-term survival situations into the agenda. Let him make a tarp shelter in the back yard and let him sleep out there overnight (with the back door unlocked). Show him how to collect rainwater for drinking. Show him how to use a tarp as a sleeping bag in fall, heaping lots of leaves under and over it for insulation.

The bottom line is to train him to think for himself. Some kids get killed or injured because they're so used to being told what to do that they're incapable of making a decision on their own, esp when they're hanging around older kids who are stupid or mean.

Sue