There are some life lessons that every child needs to learn, and the sooner the better. With the holiday season upon us, you can bet we will see at least one newspaper story about tragedy striking due to kids just being kids and things getting a little out of hand.
Children are never too young to learn the basics of fire safety, and if you teach it in a fun way, the message is more likely to sink in. Why not take some time out for it during the holidays? It could just save a life.
Understand the signs
The most important thing any child needs to know if a fire breaks out is how to get away from it. Make sure they understand what fire exit signs look like, and talk about why they are illuminated. You can make a game of trying to spot them in public buildings like shops. This is actually a game you can extend to other types of safety signs that kids encounter in day to day life – check them out here for inspiration, and get spotting when you’re out and about.
Visit the fire department
Everyone assumes that children idolize firefighters and love those big red fire trucks, but actually, they can seem quite intimidating, and a fully kitted out fireman looks like something from outer space. Schedule a visit to your local fire department as a fun, informative and extremely educational day out that the kids will never forget. Of course, you should only attend a prearranged appointment or open day, don’t just turn up at a working fire station unannounced!
Practice “stop, drop, roll”
A raucous activity that involves throwing yourself on the floor and rolling around the place, but also serves a potentially life-saving purpose? It might sound too good to be true, but that’s what stop drop roll is all about. It is a great thing to teach kids because it looks funny when they see you demonstrate it, and it is a fun activity to practice.
Devise a fire safety plan at home
We all engage more with things when we are directly involved in them as opposed to having them inflicted on us, so what better way to get the kids fire-safe than to sit down with them to create your very own fire safety code for the home. Get them to come up with some basic rules and then to decide on the best fire assembly point. When it’s all done, let them run a fire drill – they will love it.
Read the right books
Simply giving your child a book about fire safety to read will probably result in it being tossed to the back of the closet and forgotten. But when it is presented on the back of some or all of the above activities, it is another story, and while the kids are in fire safety mode, they will find a book on the subject the perfect thing to leaf through at the end of a busy day.
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