Make Your Emergency Planning a Fun Family Experience

One of the biggest mistakes parents make is thinking that their children will be scared if they get them involved in survivalist planning.

But children are a lot wiser than most parents give them credit for. They can pick up on tension when tough times hit. Kids are more afraid when disasters happen and the parents are stressed out because the parent doesn’t know where the next meal is going to come from.

Knowing that their family is prepared during a disaster and that there will be food and shelter, warmth and even fun during the tough days will ease their minds. Even more than themselves, kids also worry about their parents and their siblings.

So knowing that the whole family will be cared for can turn a potentially traumatic situation for them into a fun learning experience instead. You can get your children involved by getting their help when it comes to picking out supplies.

Your child can man the preparedness list and help cross off items every time you bring home one of the needed supplies. You can even create a fun chart and add gold stars every time you reach a certain supply goal.

Take the kids with you and let them pick out the entertainment that you’ll want to have on hand in the event of a disaster. Let them choose which board games or card games they want. Have them be the ones to choose a family puzzle.

Not only will they like being in charge of the entertainment, but spending time together as a family doing something fun, even in the event of a disaster, is reassuring to children that their family is still okay.

Let your kids get involved by picking out the seeds needed to plant a garden, too. Using seeds is also a very budget conscious way to prepare for emergency food needs. You’ll want to plan the amount of seeds based on what you think it will take to keep your family afloat for a year. Your children can have fun picking out their favorite seeds and watching them grown into plants and develop into fruits, vegetable or grains.

Let them create a little scarecrow for the family garden, too. Keep in mind that to kids, as long as the family is okay, they feel okay. So as you’re preparing for the event of any emergency, make sure that you’re presenting it in a positive light.

For example, even though adults don’t like to be without electricity, kids adapt faster and will see the lack of electricity as an adventure. By preparing ahead of time, you can use the situation as a learning experience.

As you buy kerosene lamps, you can talk about how much children once did their homework by the light of a kerosene lamp. When you get a compact stove for your preparedness supply, you can talk about how people used to prepare their meals over open campfires or on wood stoves.