Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
As parents, your number one priority is to take care of your children. Not only does that include meeting their needs and supplying a few of their wants, but also preparing them for the future. While most parents try to teach their kids what they can before they become adults, most children still don’t know what to do in an emergency situation.
While you may want to shelter your children from the world, the truth is that your kids probably know more about the world than you give them credit for. Even if they don’t watch the news with you, they are always listening and are quick to pick up on current events.Â
However, preparing your children is different than scaring your children about what could happen in a future world collapse. There are plenty of ways to teach your children survival skills and educate them without turning them into nervous basket cases. Learn how to prepare your children for the coming chaos with these tips.
Want to save this post for later? Click Here to Pin It On Pinterest!
Teach the Basics
Survival skills are rooted in knowing the basic ways to keep safe in any kind of emergency. Teaching your children the basics of survival will help them in many situations.
Gathering Food and Water
The most important part of survival is staying alive, which means that child will need to know how to find food and water. Teach your children about solar stills, clean water sources, and how they can turn even the dirtiest water into viable drinking water. Finding food to eat on your land, gathering eggs, fishing, and even hunting are excellent skills to teach a child.
Building a Shelter
While it can be frightening for a child to think about their home being destroyed, it is essential to teach children how to build a basic shelter. You can make it fun by having a survival time out in the yard and showing them how to use the materials that they have available to create shelter.
Make sure to tell them about direction, how to use the sun to your advantage, and how quickly rain and bad weather can become an issue.
Staying Warm
Heat is another vital part of surviving no matter where you live in the world. Staying warm is important to prolong your child’s ability to survive by themselves. Teach your children how to build a fire, how to start a fire if there are no matches, or what natural materials are good insulators for bedding or clothing.
First Aid Skills
Basic first aid skills are also an important part of survival. Children should know about germs and how to clean a wound. Teaching advanced techniques like how to stop bleeding or apply a tourniquet are also important. CPR and the Heimlich are basic skills that any child should know as well.
Prepare Children Psychologically
Help prepare children for the coming collapse by teaching them about the mental aspects of survival.
Consider Age and Temperament
Make sure to keep your child’s age and temperament in mind when preparing them psychologically for a collapse. While younger ones can handle how to defend themselves in terms of play, they may not need to know about the mature issues involved in emergencies.
Also, consider your child’s temperament and know what your child can mentally handle when it comes to knowing all of the ins and outs of survival issues.Â
Identifying Dangerous People
An essential skill for any child, whether in an emergency or not, is identifying people that pose a threat. Run through different collapse scenarios and teach your children what a safe person may look like as opposed to a dangerous one. Remind children that not everyone who wears a uniform is safe, and not everyone that carries a gun is a threat.Â
Teach your children how to hide from danger and what to do if someone comes close that isn’t safe. When surviving at home or close to home, remind children that they know the topography and natural areas to hide that newcomers or intruders may not be aware of.
It is also a good idea to boost your child’s belief in themself as well. Teach them to trust their gut and instincts when approached by strangers and that feeling off about someone usually proves to be true.
Advanced Training
Prepare your children one step further by teaching them advanced skills or training for survival.
Self-DefenseÂ
All of us can use skills in self-defense, even the youngest children in a family. Again, make any kind of self-defense skills into a game to create a fun atmosphere while learning. Knowing how to get out of a sticky situation, as well as the sensitive areas of the human body, could save your child’s life.
Self-defense skills could also be used in keeping your child safe from natural predators in the area. Teach your child how to spot and track different animals as well as the best ways to protect themselves from a wild predator.
Weapons Training
Knowing how to load, shoot, and clean a gun is an important skill for any child who lives on the homestead. While guns may be less prevalent in a city setting, it is essential to teach children how to protect themselves and others with a firearm. If you don’t own a gun yourself, take your child to the nearest gun range where you can rent a gun to shoot.Â
Other necessary weapons training can involve a bow and arrow, axe, or knives. While these skills are for the more advanced and mature kids in the family, it is always good to know what you can use within your reach to get out of an emergency situation.Â
Hunting and Cleaning Animals
Another advanced skill that is great to know is how to hunt and clean animals. Not only will this help your child feed themselves and others, but it teaches them valuable skills in terms of what parts of an animal are safe to eat.Â
Teach your children about how to trap or snare an animal and different ways to find fresh meat without using a firearm. Knowing how to kill and harvest even the smallest animals could be the difference between life and death.
Morse Code and Phonetic Alphabets
Being able to communicate with others is another important skill in an emergency situation. Teach your children the NATO phonetic alphabet to help them understand how to communicate when it is hard to hear others. If speaking is not an option, your child should know morse code and how to communicate with others via tapping or using a light source.Â
It is essential to teach your children all of these survival skills while they are in your care. When preparing for a true emergency like a social or economic collapse, you really can’t be too prepared.
Taking a camping trip together can be a great way to teach these skills as well as have some fun. Other options include watching the many survival shows on TV that can teach different ways to survive despite the elements.
Remember to teach these skills in fun or game-like settings for those younger or anxious children who may not be mature enough for the reality of survival. All of these tips can be the difference between your child surviving the coming chaos or not.
Like this post? Don't Forget to Pin It On Pinterest!
You May Also Like:
