By John Alba
Children of any age are eager to learn, as they are in a natural state of skill building and development. In particular, engaging teenagers in the world around them through education and safety will give them necessary skills to survive in disaster situations. Teaching teens survival skills helps keep them actively learning in an outdoor environment as part of a homeschool education.
It’s important to incorporate outdoor skills and techniques into a homeschooling curriculum to keep your family prepared and ready for anything. This can be done by teaching basic survival skills to your kids and incorporating them into their various school subjects. They will not only be prepared but they will be acquainted with the world around them and have learned prepper skills for surviving within the environment.
Fire Safety and Preparation
When homeschooling future survivalists and preppers, a basic skill is fire starting and the safety surrounding starting and putting out a fire. This can be incorporated into a science workshop for homeschoolers, learning to use their environment to create tools of survival.
Students can be taught the difference between tinder, kindling and fuel to help them create more effective and lasting fires in case of dire situations. They can learn to gather firewood and tinder within their surroundings by looking for sticks or twigs about the width of a pencil and no shorter than their hand or gathering wood the thickness of their wrist and length of their arm to provide fuel for the fire.
This is also an opportunity to introduce fire safety into their prepper homeschool curriculum. Educating your kids about fire safety encourages them to only start fires appropriately and with supervision, but it also shows them the accurate way in which to put out a fire.
Local Plant Education
Homeschooling preppers should be prepared with the knowledge of their local plants in case of disaster. It’s important for them to know what plants are safe or unsafe to touch or consume. There are fun activities to engage kids of all ages and to help them learn about the outdoor world around them. Creating art by tracing leaf shapes, sketching plants, and pointing out the correlations or differences between different plants, will help students identify the nature around them while becoming more acquainted with it.
Sharing the different edible and medicinal plants, allowing them to taste and gather the safe edible plants, helps them practice and gain important knowledge in the event of an emergency. Together you could brew tea from dandelions or let them create from plants they have gathered. (Be sure to double check their findings as some plants have look-a-likes that will not digest too nicely).
History and Science of Disasters
It’s important to incorporate specific skills into a homeschool education but it is equally as important to incorporate knowledge about disasters themselves to fully prepare and educate students on basic prepper skills. Kids will need an idea of why they are learning survivalist skills, however it is important not to scare them with the severity of disaster situations.
First, share the definition of a natural disaster and give them an opportunity to tell you what natural disasters they have heard about it. This gives you a starting point before going deeper into the subject. You may also start by teaching your children about various kinds of disasters that could occur, while tying in real world examples. In order to keep it light and kid-friendly, using worksheets or kids’ fact books may not be a bad idea, here is an educational activity book that may work for you and your homeschooler.
This is an opportunity to discuss the differences between earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes; as well as an opportunity to discuss fallout situations or societal collapse while informing family members of the action plan in case of those events.
Outdoor Art
Art doesn’t sound like the strongest survival technique, but for young preppers it is an opportunity to create useful items that could prove very beneficial in the long run. This is an opportunity to have your teenagers learn skills like sewing, crotchet, woodwork and more if they haven’t already. These skills could come in handy when needing to repair clothing items or creating new pieces like blankets or overhead coverings.
This is also an opportunity to teach them knife safety by introducing a simple and safe pocketknife to them while supervised. Allowing them to learn how to appropriately use it and create with it as a tool.
More to Learn
Readying your family for emergent situations is crucial to being fully prepared to take on any challenge and adequately protect yourself and family. It is easier to prepare and protect your family if they too have similar knowledge and are awaiting the same emergency disaster.
Children are at the best stage to learn, they absorb like sponges and are eager to take on new challenges. It’s equally important to continue teaching teens to keep these concepts fresh in their minds. Learning prepper skills through homeschooling is the most practical way to teach the whole family about disaster response, fire safety and more.
You can also take opportunities to discuss first aid, health and hygiene in a disaster situation as it is crucial to healthy survival. Incorporating a mixture of fun and some more intensive activities within your homeschool curriculum with your kids will make them as ready as you.