Every individual needs to be able to take care of his or herself, including children. They may not be adults yet, and they may have fewer responsibilities than most of us, but they do need to learn how to survive in this cruel world, especially when outdoors. Hence, in this post, we’ll be rounding up the top survival skills your child should know.
It is every parent’s responsibility to teach their kids various skills they can use throughout their lives. In this modern world of ready-to-eat food and high-tech gadgets made for utmost convenience, the art of survival skills fade as majority of us rarely use them.
However, the greatest thing about survival skills is that no one can predict when and where to use them.
Apparently, it’s better to know how to execute a certain necessary skill, such as starting a fire with wet wood, in case of an emergency than to be stuck without any knowledge.
So without further ado, here’s a list of the top survival skills every kid should learn.
Top 10 Survival Skills Your Child Should Know Right Now
1. Finding Safe Drinking Water
Finding safe drinking water is a crucial skill since the human body can live without food for several days, but not without water. It is, therefore, necessary for every kid to know how to locate water sources and how to purify them.
First off, if the potable water you consume in your home is sourced from a deep well or faucet, you might want to teach your kids how to continue drawing water from them if electricity’s out.
When outdoors, make sure your child brings a bottle of water at all times. Otherwise, the safest water sources outdoors are springs, streams, ice, and snow. Lakes, ponds, and creeks are unsafe, no matter how clear they can be. Next, show them the proper way of testing spring water and other water sources to make them safe for drinking.
Water can be boiled, filtered, or treated with chemicals such as iodine to rid it of bacteria and viruses.
2. Basic First Aid
Every child and adult should learn basic first aid. First aid is beneficial during emergency situations. It could be a life saver, especially if your child is alone and injured.
Your kid needs to be shown where the first aid supplies can be found, emergency numbers to call, as well as some basic skills such as treating minor wounds, burns, and tying a sling.
This animated video below will teach your kids how to do basic first aid in case of accidents.
3. Building Fire
Building fire is an essential outdoor skill.
Teach kids how to gather wood, light matches, keep the fire under control, cook with it, and most importantly, kill it when not in use to prevent forest fires.
You might want to go as far as teaching children how to start a fire with wet wood as an advanced survival skill.
4. How to forage
Differentiating poisonous plants and shrubs from non-poisonous ones is a great skill to possess. You can teach your kids this lesson by simply taking them on nature walks and pointing out which are edible or poisonous as you go along.
Since it may be hard for kids to keep track of so much information, encourage them to keep a journal with pictures and names of each plant for future reference.
Start with non-poisonous and edible plants first then move on to those with dangerous look-alikes such as nettle, berries, watercress, dandelions, and cattails.
5. How to find or build shelter in the wilderness
Kids should acknowledge the importance of a shelter in a survival situation and how to find one when needed.
You can teach them how to find the right spot to position a tent, areas to avoid, and creating makeshift shelters if you don’t have a tent with you.
This skill is one of the most fun things to learn, especially building makeshift shelters. You can teach them how to use fallen trees, dry leaves, and other outdoor objects to stimulate their resourcefulness.
6. Self-defense
Children can protect themselves through acquiring self-defense skills. Enrolling them in a self-defense class can benefit him or her in many ways.
They can learn self-discipline, feel more confident, and be able to defend themselves against attackers and potentially dangerous situations.
For the meantime, you can refer to the video below for basic self-defense techniques for kids.
7. Handling a knife
The mere thought of sharp objects scares children away. Knives have become a taboo subject among the youngsters because of its possible dangers, but these tools are also present in our daily lives; that’s why children need to know how to use it safely.
The more aware and knowledgeable they become about knives, the less likely they are to experiment with it. Children should be taught how to hold a knife, walk with a knife, cutting objects with knives, and storing them properly.
8. How to swim
Sadly, drowning is one of the most common forms of accidents faced by children outdoors. Children do love the water, and it’s inevitable to keep them away from it. Hence, the only way to make sure they’re safe while enjoying the waters is to teach them how to swim and float.
Don’t know how to swim yourself? Let little Emma help you!
9. How to fish
Fishing is fun. It’s a good form of bonding for parents and kids. It’s easy to learn, and it’s not complicated at all – it doesn’t involve lots of expensive equipment.
Furthermore, kids can appreciate the outdoors more if they know how to fish because of the free food. Teach your children how to fish in 10 simple steps from this article.
10. Reading a map, compass, and GPS
Maps, compasses, and GPS devices let children know where they are and help them find their way in case they get lost.
GPS systems can let you know your location instantly, but if you run out of battery, compass and maps are your only options for navigation.
Not only will reading these tools provide children with information on their whereabouts, but they also help in enriching kids’ spatial thinking by making them visualize objects in relation with one another.
Final Thoughts
Children should be taught survival skills early on so they can be prepared anytime, especially during a zombie apocalypse. Kidding! So, there you have it — the top 10 survival skills that are extremely helpful for children and for adults too. Know that those 10 bullets are just the tip of the iceberg as there are about a hundred or so skills you can learn from the outdoors.
Hey, camper! Did you find this post useful? Have you learned a lot? Do you know other survival tips or tricks? Let us know in the comments section below. Don’t forget to share this post. Cheers!
What will happen when you are near a water body and would like to catch some fish without having packed any gear? Well, there are many ways to catch fish without having any gear with you. This article will chow how to catch a fish with your hand
You might not have the ability to drive to the local market to get the things you want.
What You Will Need To Make
After selecting the crayons, you would have to remove the wraps of crayons. For this, you would need a bowl having water and ice in it. After that, the crayons have to be put in the cold water and leave it for five minutes. Likewise, the wrapper can be removed.
It is the time to mold the melted crayon for preparing your candles. You can pour this mixture into a metal cutter of cookie, a mini cup of baking or any container according to your wish and leave it for 5 minutes.
After you complete selecting the ideal wick, you would now have to insert it in the candle. A toothpick or pointed end of a crayon can be a good option if you want to make a hole in the half made candle.
The first thing that you would have to do is hold the can and cut a small ‘window’ on it with the help of the knife. However, you should be very careful while using the knife as lack of attention might result in injury.
After cutting the window in the can, you would have to open up the section and clean inside. Now, you just have to put the tea candle inside the can through the window. And this makes your can ready as the lighted lamp.
The first thing you would do is cutting the tab of the soda can. To start with, cut an aperture in the tab’s bottom hole. You need to make sure that you are cutting in a slanted way and after that begin to cut away the metal around the hook as much as possible. Now you need to turn the hook into a keen point by filing it.
The next step in making fish hook is filing the hook. If you have to file the keen edges of the hook, the multipurpose tool would be a good option to use. A multipurpose tool can be said as a versatile utensil that can be used for various purposes.
It is the time to make an aperture for fishing lines. To make this small hole, the pocket blade could be a good one to employ.
Now you have to insert the hook in the paracord piece.
Using a scratch awl, you would have to make holes on a can’s bottom edge. It is said that small holes are fuel coherent while big holes can burn fast and hot. You can do whichever you like.
Now it is the time to make the main opening. For making it, you would have to cut the bottom from where the holes were made in the can. You would need a strong instrument to cut it as the can is thicker here.
The third phase involves cutting down the top of the stove. By measuring 20mm from the can’s bottom, you would have to cut it to make the top part of the stove. Keeping a regular Sharpie on the table, you have to turn around the can against it.
To make tabs, you would have to cut the stove top’s edges for many times. The resulted small tabs will ensure that the top will fit in the bottom of the stove correctly. You can make the number of spaced cut around evenly according to your wish or requirement.
Now, you would have to take another can to cut its bottom. By measuring 25mm from the can’s bottom, you have to cut it. You can make the stove tall or short by adjusting the given measurement.
It is the time to make the inner walls. The leftover remains of the earlier cans would be utilized for making it. However, if these remains are not in the usable state, then you might require a third can.
To fix the inner wall in the bottom of the stove, you would have to cut a halfway along the strip on both the ends to make them fasten together. The strip ends would have to be inside while locking.
All the three parts now have to be put together. You can begin with setting the inner wall with the down notched ends, then fitting the stove top and inserting the preceding cut tabs at the bottom. All these things will eventually get fixed as a puzzle.
You would have first to measure your wrist by wrapping a nice rope or string around it. Using a marker, create a line of the string. Next, you would have to cut and melt the ends. With the help of a lighter, you have to burn the cord evenly.
You would have to now fold the paracord of 10ft to work together on both ends. The cord threads have to be inserted through the lower opening of the side release buckle. Now you have to pull the cord’s loose ends along the loop that has been formed on the other side till it forms a tight knot.
In this step, you would have to take the left cord to thread it beneath the cord of the bracelet and then take the right one to thread under the left one.
The above process will continue till it reaches the bottom of the buckle. Now, the male buckle has to be pulled towards the female buckle for more limp.
After tightening up the end, the cords’ ends have to be melted to prevent from wearing away. You need to squeeze the melted ends to make them flat. And with this, your paracord survival bracelet will finally form.
Raccoons are common all over the United States. Although they have an adorable face and are fun to watch at times, they will cause havoc in your shed or attic and knock your garbage can on its side. They’ll even steal your bird seed and dog food, and because of rabies can pose a safety risk to your family and pets. If thieving trash pandas are giving you a hard time, you’ll be glad to know one of the best ways to get rid of them is through trapping. Here are some tips to help you through it.