The best way to prepare your kids for any disaster is to read to them. Choose books that are kid friendly, fun, enticing and educational. These will introduce survival scenarios without sounding scary and ominous.
As a child, I remember reading and re-reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George and wishing I could run away to the mountains like Sam and live in a hollowed out tree. I couldn't imagine a tree big enough to live in. I loved all the pictures and ideas discussed in the book and often spent hours in the woods behind my farm trying out the things I learned from the book.
My own kids are pretty imaginative and enjoy creating their own survival outings around our farm. They have plans to go out during the summer and spend the night in the woods (the older kids, the younger kids would not make it past dusk). The younger kids enjoy playing in the woods and hearing stories about kids who have survived wilderness situations. I try to share a variety of survival style stories with them to spark their curiosity.
Some great books we enjoy are:
Hatchet
My Side of the Mountain Series
The Sign of the Beaver
Little House on the Prairie Series
Survive the Desert!
Survive the Jungle!
Survive the Sea!
Trial by Wilderness
Julie of the Woods
The Swiss Family Robinson
The older teen set might enjoy these series/books:
Life As We Knew It series by Susan Pfeffer
The Tomorrow Series
The Hunger Games
Do you have any kids book suggestions to add to this list? Do you read these types of books to your kids or do your kids enjoy reading these types of books? What other ways do you prepare your kids?
2 comments:
One of my favorite series as a pre-teen was "The Boxcar Children." The siblings lived without adults and had great adventures along the way...
My son and I enjoyed A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements (side note is all of his books are good but this one inspired us to learn more about survival and emergency preparedness).
DavetteB
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