At what age do you ladies start teaching the little ones about safety? Crossing the road, fire, emergency situations. My group consists of almost 2 and a 3 year olds.
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At what age do you ladies start teaching the little ones about safety? Crossing the road, fire, emergency situations. My group consists of almost 2 and a 3 year olds.
As for crossing the road, in my opinion there is no such thing as too early. My son, from age 1 1/2 would point to the stop sign and freeze. Now, on our walk all the little ones have followed suit. I do a fire drill every Sept. & January...the little ones just like crawling on the floor, I think;) As for other emergency situations... Hadn't really addressed that. Brings up a good point though; what is we were to become unconscious or something? They're really too young to call 911.Quote:
Originally Posted by little rascals
My age group is mixed from 1 - 6 years of age - so the younger ones are always learning as I work with the older ones ;)
We practice monthly fire/emergency drills with all age groups - how to exit the house and where to meet in an emergency whomever is the 'oldest' in care is in charge of being 'fire helper' the ones I work with on what to do in an emergency - aka if Reggio falls down and cannot get up you call 911 and tell all your friends to sit down on the couch, put the baby in their booster seat and so forth until help arrives... the other younger ones learn to 'listen' to this person during practice scenarios like this ... IMO the more you 'role play' emergencies and what to do in them the less 'scary' they are for children if they ever DO occur.... knowledge is power and you tend not to 'fear' the things you know how to deal with - so fire drills do not make them scared or paranoid of fire but rather in 'control' of should something like that happen. When they are all 'young' and not really old enough what I am really practicing is to make sure that in an emergency I am prepared and can get a group of wee ones out safely - cause the more you practice the more you realize things like 'what will I do if it is winter and they are all without footwear - better make sure to have a tarp and blankets in my shed to keep they dry and warm and so forth.
As for crossing the street - we work on this all the time to. At every cross we say 'look left, look right - are they any moving cars in sight? If not hold your hands nice and tight and make your feet go left and right!
We practice all the time too. Every day that we are out walking we talk about stopping for cars and looking both ways and they MUST all hold hands while we cross the street. I too do fire drills. I do them every couple of months. We've talked about 911 but my group is pretty young and doesn't get it yet, but we still talk about it. You never know what they are taking in. They are like little sponges with information :)
Reggio can I steal that, that is so cute but informative :)
I go over crossing the street and importance of walking together as a group but I haven't started talking about fire safety yet because just turning 2 and dont know how to explain In a way they would understand.
Do you also do tornado safety with the really young ones?
With the young ones I really just focus on when you hear the fire alarm or my whistle you stop, listen and follow me - no time for silliness and we practice where to go when you hear it ... not too much on the WHYS yet ... after our drill of getting out of home I do the talking about fire safety or emergency with the older over 3 and if the young ones get it to by osmosis so be it ;)
I use the controversial backpacks with ropes attached to my wrist. Then I practice walking with the children as soon as they are strong enough to walk up and down the sidewalks, usually at about 18-20 months of age. I would rather know the children are safe beside me than ever taking a chance of having a child dart out into traffic because they didn't understand an instruction.
Never too early, if you ask me. We always talk it out when crossing the roadway. "STOP. Look AAALLLLL ways. Is anyone coming?" and so on.
I was out with the kids the other day, and was glad that I had my wits about me. My p/t boy just darted out onto the road!! He only made it a step or two out, but it really reminded me how these things happen. If I hadn't been paying attention, and he had gotten farther, and a vehicle had been coming?? Yeesh.
What shocked me was that he is two and a half. Shouldn't he know better?? He does now... my scooping him up and using a very firm voice startled the bejeebers out of him!
With my little one's I haven't had stuff planned out re: safety but it just happens...like crossing the street - looking for cars, or when we're in a parking lot the rule is: 1 hand has to be on the red circle (rear lights) of my car at all times, no running etc.
Oh yeah we also do the hand holding...we don't move unless we're a link! But like PP said my group are all 3 & under so I think it's enough for now :P
Don't underestimate the amount of safety you can teach little children. When we walk my just barely turned 2 year old knows to yell out LANEWAY! Because we stop at all the laneways and look for cars.
We play the green light, red light game sometimes inside and I cut out a whole bunch of fire extinguishers, smoke alarms and dangerous things like knives, chainsaws and ladders and had my older children make safety books. I had pictures of firefighters, police and paramedics by their vehicles.
I taught them about 911 and had the parents help the children memorize their address. I know some people don't like themes, but I love them. I do this twice a year. And I include a fire drill too.