How to Teach Kids Personal Safety
When it comes to children, personal safety involves many different things. It covers how to handle emergency situations like a house fire, how to be safe during routine tasks like cutting food or boiling water, how to handle themselves around strangers and how to recognize when a situation presents a danger--a signal that it's time to remove themselves from that situation.
Teaching personal safety to kids means teaching them to be aware of their surroundings, to use their heads and to react appropriately when a hazard presents itself. It also involves teaching them specific responses to certain situations.
Instructions
Escape Routes from the House
Draw a map of your home with your children. Include all the rooms, windows and doors. Ask your children to find two routes of escape from each room. Point out the doors and windows in each room and the doors that exit the house. Show the children a place outside where you will all meet should you need to evacuate the house. Practice your escape plan every month or two with the entire family. Fire Safety: Stop, Drop and Roll
Teach your children how to respond if their clothes ever catch fire. Practice the three steps: stop, drop and roll. Call out "Stop!" and watch to see that the children stop. Then call out "Drop!" They should lie down quickly. Next, call out "Roll!" They should roll around to put out the imaginary flames. Basic Kitchen Safety
Tell your children about the most common dangers in the kitchen, which are cooking fires, burns and cuts. Tell your children that if they are cooking on the stove, they should remain in the kitchen as long as the burner is on. Leaving the kitchen and forgetting about cooking food is the most common cause of a kitchen fire. Show your children how to suffocate a kitchen fire using a metal pan lid or baking soda. Demonstrate safe cooking practices that help prevent burns. Show children how to position pans with handles inward so they don't accidentally get pulled off the stove. Also, show your children how cooking on back burners is safer. Teach children proper cutting techniques. For young children, pre-cut snacks like apples and cheese slices so they have ready access to snacks without needing to handle sharp knives. Stranger Danger
Talk to your children about safe habits when they are playing outside or walking to school. They should use the buddy system. They should never approach vehicles unless a parent or trusted adult pre-approved by you is driving. They should avoid shortcuts. They should understand it is OK to say no if an adult is making them uncomfortable or scared. Establish a safe word you can give to friends or extended family members in an emergency. They can say this safe word to your children, so your children know it's OK to go with them. Walk through your neighborhood with your kids and show them safe places they can go if they ever feel threatened. "Block parent" homes and neighbors you know well are ideal.
