Teaching your little kid about survival from an early age will help them in the later years of their lives tremendously.
We often teach ourselves the basic survival skills to protect the family in case of an emergency. Still, things will undoubtedly take a wrong turn if your kids are not familiar with survivalism and how to tackle the emergency crisis.
We do not suggest that you give all the knowledge of survivalism to your kid at a single time. On the contrary, you should start with little steps and make things happen one day at a time.
This slow teaching method will keep the kids interested, and they would not feel overburdened with the information and knowledge.
Lets us start with this guide to teach your kid survival skills. One thing to remember is that they are kids. They will not do things perfectly and will constantly be distracted.
You have to add a fun element to the training and keep their interest intact by keeping rewards or incentives.
Contents
S.T.O.P
Before you teach anything to your child, educate them about the S.T.O.P. acronym.
If in the future they get lost in the woods, in their school surroundings, or even at the mall, they can quickly calm themselves and start reasoning.
This method will feel complicated starting as their first instinct will be to panic. Teach kids not to wander around aimlessly crying and follow the S.T.O.P. method.
- Stop: The kid needs to stop and sit down to breathe and avoid panicking.
- Think: Your kid should start thinking about the situation and come to the senses.
- Observe: This step will teach them to assess the situation they are in, where they need to go, what potential dangers they can see at the moment and will arise in later stages, and so on.
- Plan and Act: Get ready with all the gathered information and weave a plan. Do not forget to incorporate another backup plan too. After that, they can start acting on the plan.
Essential Skills To Teach Your Kids
Building fire
If they are alone, they should know how to build a fire. Teach this if the kid is a little older. You can teach this in your backyard too. Tell them which trees and barks they should use.
How to collect and arrange and keep the fire burning will be the next step. Make a mini fire and tell them to make one just like you did for practice.
Food-foraging, cooking and growing
Now will be an excellent time to teach them about food. Kids should have dry snacks in their emergency bags. Teach them how much to eat at a single time and cook with the fire.
Help your kids by teaching them which berries to eat and avoid.
Teach them how to forage food for a living, especially mushrooms, and identify edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. Have a little garden and teach how to sow and take care of plants.
If the child is old, you can teach them hunting and fishing. Small animals will be a perfect size for a start.
Shelter
Play a game of building forts and teach them few easy and essential ways to create a shelter, especially with a tarp. Take your time on this as it is an important topic to cover.
Teach them how to stay warm inside the shelters and protect themselves from natural elements.
Water
Teach kids how to find water and collect it safely. You can teach rainwater collection in your yard by demonstrating how to make an easy rain catchment system with bottles, leaves, and cloth as a filter.
Introduce them to water filters and keep one personal filter and tablet in their fanny pack.
Basic car repair
Do not underestimate a car problem. They should know how to do essential car repairing if their vehicle shuts down in a deserted or stranded place.
Teenagers should learn all the basics of car fixing, like changing the oil, tires, cooling the engines, and starting the battery.
An emergency can be of anything; staying prepared is the only thing that will make them come out of the situation quickly.
Signaling for help
As adults, we keep a balance of signaling and moving on our own, but kids should focus on signaling more as they might not do very well when finding out the way for survival.
Hand them a whistle and teach the blowing thrice method in full strength and stopping after three whistle calls to hear anything back.
Show them how mirrors work and if they are old, teach them how to call out attention by using fires. These survival skills for kids will come in handy, and they will remember if you keep brushing them.
First aid
Play the first-aid game and let them dress your scratch or minor wound. Ask Your child to follow the steps as you are dictating. Teach them about sanitizing, disinfecting the injury, and applying bandages.
As they grow older, you can start teaching more complex first aid skills. C.P.R. should be on their list to learn.
Teaching weather patterns
You should teach your little one how to look out for weather patterns. Teach them about the weather forecast and what to do during hurricanes, typhoons, or lightning.
Teach them the necessary steps to do when they are in the house and what things to avoid doing when they are out of the house and mainly in the wilderness.
Hiding for safety
Hiding and seeking games can help teach them how to hide correctly from wild animals, burglars, and creepy people. Hiding is not a cowardly thing to do; tell them to always hide from potential danger.
Tell them not to hide when the house is on fire.
Importance of ‘911’
Tell them about 911 and how you can call this number if they are in trouble. Even if kids forget their way home, they can call 911 to help them reach home safely.
Warn them not to call these numbers if they want to play or are feeling bored. You can check your emergency helpline number according to your country.
Self-defense
If you have taken professional self-defense training, you can teach your kids a few moves now and then. Enroll them in a good self-defense class for their survival and safety.
Negotiation and bartering
You can take your kids to flea markets and yard sales to teach bartering and negotiation skills. This activity will make them realize the value of money even after they grow old.
This bartering and negotiation skill will come in handy during S.H.T.F. situations if they ever want to negotiate essential survival items.
Games That Teach Survival Skills To Kids
Geocaching
Geocaching is an ultimate game to teach your kid how to find things using a G.P.S. navigation. Your kid can reach the exact coordinates and dig out a hidden cache.
The box contains a list and a pen to write down your name on that list. The person who removed the box should hide the box precisely as hidden earlier for the next person to find.
Sometimes there are even bigger boxes where you will find a few trinkets that you can take, keep and exchange, making this game a sentimental and wholesome game about wits.
Urban Survival Playing Cards
These playing cards are a must-have in at least one bug-out bag of your family. This card game is compact and will keep you entertained.
You can use the card as a standard deck of cards, plus it has excellent survival information on each card.
You can use this all-in-one deck as a flashcard to ask kids questions about survivalism and keep them prepared even while playing.
Monopoly: The Walking Dead Survival Edition
Monopoly is a classic house staple, but this special edition is an excellent game to teach survivalism and frugality after the world’s collapse.
Kids will know how the system works without frightening them as they will be playing just a board game. Kids from the ages of 13+ can play this game.
If you couldn’t get your hands on this edition, these are few other board games on the same concept you can buy.
Regular good old monopoly will also teach them money value and essential skills needed to survive as they grow.
Paintball
Grab your little one and go to paintballing. This game will teach your kid how to maneuver and stay clear from the preditors. They will learn tactics that will save them from an actual life emergency.
They will be very good at dodging things coming towards their way.
Try these fun games to teach them how to survive and be cautious without stressing.
Essential Survival Skills Outdoor Activities For Kids
Swimming
Swimming can be an excellent survival skill if they are drowning or decide to camp on a lakeside. Take them to your nearest pool on a hot summer day as it will make them happy and your trip will be fruitful too.
If you have a pond or lake where you live, then make a picnic out of it.
Teach them swimming and let them have fun. After eating, quiz them about swimming and the necessary steps to keep in mind while swimming. Ensure you carry extra floaties if they are not ready to learn to swim.
Glub-glub fishing
Fishing will bring them a step closer to nature, and they will learn how to catch fish which will prove to be helpful in the event of an emergency.
Teach them how to use bait to lure fishes and capture and retrieve them. If you are near a creek or shallow river, you can even try to teach them to catch a fish with a spear or just hands.
Camping
Camping is one of the best activities to teach your child various things all in one trip. You will need a lot of gear so start packing well in advance. You can instruct your tots on how to decide on a campsite and pitch a tent.
Tell them to bring woods for fire and demonstrate how to cook.
As a reward, you can let them have fresh smores grilled on your fire. Teach them about water, animals, plants.
Camping can be a practical practice test of all the things you have taught them through cards and backyard training.
Hosting a Survival theme party
Invite all of their friends and play treasure hunt games, including navigation and compass. Have mini-sessions of survival games and let them cook food and do everything without electricity.
This party is a great activity to let them see and participate in such situations.
You can teach them through books and orally, but practically experiencing will be more fun for these kids.
You can change the theme and add whatever mini-games you wish to teach your kids. Customize the day and have a blast.
Additional Resources
- It would be best to keep The Survival Handbook in your house for your kid to read. The book has terrific colorful pictures and information that will make kids interested in learning about survivalism. This book is perfect when your kid can learn and understand the content matter.
- Worksheets are another great examples that will be beneficial to you. These worksheets are great for small kids. ISL Collective has more than 30 worksheets on various emergencies. The worksheets ask questions, suggest playing games, and force kids to tell what they will do in certain survival situations.
Conclusion
You can always change and add a few skills and activities according to the availability of things near you.
These skills will teach them to survive in any situation, be it wilderness or everyday emergencies. A prepared child is a safe child.
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