I don't know why I thought of this topic, and after reading a lot of information, I began to be nervous that I was going to give my kids (mostly my 3-year old boy) dangerous ideas about "fun" things he could do with fire, so I decided to mostly focus on the "what if our house/you is/are on fire" aspect of fire safety. I also worried that it may make my children paranoid, but I think that if they know what to do and are prepared, hopefully they will feel safe.
We talked about "Stop, Drop, and Roll", and practiced that several times. (you can bet that was fun for them) And talked about not playing with fire, matches, or candles. There should ALWAYS be an adult around if there is fire around.
We talked about a smoke alarm, where they are, what they do, and demonstrated what they sound like so they would know.
We talked about if you hear it and you're in a room with the door closed, you should first feel the doorknob. If it's hot, stay where you are because the fire is on the other side of the door. If not, you can open it.
We talked about firemen and not to be scared of them, even though they might look funny with their gas mask on. (I showed them a picture like this)
You should always crawl to avoid the smoke. Practice crawling around between rooms or having crawling races.
We talked about our escape plan, where to go if you're in different parts of the house, and how to get out, and we practiced. We also got out the fire ladder kept in my husband's closet and made sure we knew how to use it to get down from our balcony.
This lesson kind of gave me a sense of peace, because I don't think I really ever thought about where I would go or what I would do if there were ever a fire in the middle of the night. My husband's house burned down when he was younger, so to me that makes it more real (Even though we're hoping that means our chances of dealing with that are lower than average. How many people deal with that twice in one lifetime?)
We had s'mores for a treat. :)
I'll update later if I seemed to have caused any nightmares in my 3-year old and how I dealt with it. I'm hoping it will be ok though. (My 18-mo old is surely too young for that).
Update: it's now Thursday and no sign of any nightmares. :)
This is a great idea. I think helping our kids be safe is so important! Another conversation we've had lately has been about if a stranger grabs you. It was inspired by a news video Patrick and I watched. A little girl (five-years-old, I think) had stepped into the aisle next to her mom and a man just grabbed her and started to run, but the little girl screamed and kicked and he let her go and ran. It had been caught on the security cameras at the store. I thought, "Would my kiddo do that?" So I told him the story and told him that's what he should do and then we went over it again with him telling me what to do and then we told Dad when he got home.
ReplyDeleteSomebody picks you up who you don't know: you scream and yell and kick as loud as you can. My mom used to instruct me to say, "This is not my mother!" I think because she figured a kid screaming might just be perceived as a tantrum so people might not take it too seriously. Anyway, sorry this is so long, but along a similar line and it helped me feel more reassured.