Family Safety Homeschool Unit-Part 2

Part 2 of our Safety Unit started this morning with a visit to a local preschool, where Officer Bobby from our town's police department was scheduled to speak to the class. Officer Bobby took the kids through the basics...don't talk to strangers, say "no" to drugs, and tell the police if you see something bad. Then he moved on to the most compelling part of his presentation (besides the obligatory giveaways at the end) where he showed us his Kevlar vest and described what he carried on his belt: gun, tazer, handcuffs (in two sizes), baton, knife, radio, 2 extra magazines loaded with .40 caliber hollow-point bullets (Officer Bobby made a point to share that it was far better to have too much ammo than not enough, and I couldn't agree with him more). And finally, he took the band of preschoolers outside to take turns sitting in the squad SUV, and beeping its siren...ooooh, ahhhh!

As the 15 or so preschoolers attempted to demonstrate their "good listening skills" for Officer Bobby, my head filled with a thousand leading questions with which to ambush this police spokesman, but as I looked around the preschool at the shiny little indoctrinated faces of children and teachers alike, I thought better of it and asked instead, "So, how much does all that gear you wear weigh?" LAME.

Ok, so I chickened out, but let's face it, friends, in our current political climate, if I had asked half the questions that came to mind, I'm sure I would have pulled into my driveway to find social workers on my doorstep ready to ask a few questions of their own.

After all, who really cares if a citizen's constitutional rights are violated if it means the rest of us feel safer? Who cares that police routinely operate outside the constraints of the law in order to provide us with the appearance of "security"? No one even notices that "law enforcement officer" has now somehow mutated into "community safety officer" encouraging us to abdicate our divine right to protect ourselves and our property to a disinterested third party.

But I digress...let's just say that, in spite of my inability to ask the probing questions during the preschool safety lecture, this portion of the Safety Unit I have edited very carefully for my own kids. In fact, the bundle of free schwagg we left the presentation with was chock full of implications about our dependence on police for personal safety and the supposition that all people arrested by the police are indeed guilty, so we will refrain from using them for their coloring book magnificence, and instead use them as fodder for the firepit.

In defense of poor Officer Bobby, who was on "Preschool Education Detail" in part because of a recent knee surgery, he never did hit upon any of the red flagged buzzwords I was primed to pounce on. I never heard him say "Police are here to keep you safe", and he didn't come across like a roided out nutcase with a power complex. Quite the opposite. He was a soft spoken, humble, Iraq vet who told the kids he became a police officer because he liked to help people. Kudos to the Department for employing one of the good guys.

Family Safety Homeschool Unit-Part 1

This week we decided to do our homeschool unit on Safety. Last fall, we went through some fire safety basics, but as the kids get older, I find they're more able to grasp the concepts so I believe it's important to reinforce and expand on what they already know...especially in the life-saving skills arena. 

After reading several books from the library on fire safety we discussed each kid's evacuation plan.  We learned how to touch a doorknob to see if it was hot, and talked about the options if it was. I took them over to each window in their rooms and, while I may regret this later, demonstrated how to open it & pop the screen so they could jump out. We agreed that in an emergency, we would meet down at the playground, some 50 yards from our house and well out of the path of any fire-related traffic.

Once I figured the kids knew how to get out in an emergency, we decided to do some "drills" to practice leaving the house in heavy smoke conditions. Each kid took turns being blind folded and then finding their way from their room to the front door on hands and knees. I even did it once from my room. They had a blast.

While Boy was able to cruise around and ultimately find the exit, he did bump his head a few times on the furniture...this was a very effective way for him to learn to get his hands out in front of him. Little Sister, on the other hand was brilliant at this game...so good, in fact that I kept checking to see if she was peeking.

After we all had a chance to practice, I pulled out the stopwatch and started timing them. Boy ran it in about a minute, less time if I was coaching. Little Sister went from her room to the front door, on hands and knees, BLINDFOLDED in 34 seconds. I have to admit it makes me feel much better to know that my kids can get out that fast in the smoke and dark if they needed to.

To wrap up our lesson, we discussed the two things fire needs to keep burning and methods that grown ups use to put fires out.  Sadly, while we had a tour of the fire station scheduled for today, Little Sister woke up with a sniffle this morning so we rescheduled.

Tomorrow, we address "personal safety" and get to meet a real police officer. I'm excited to ask him a few choice gun-related, personal defense questions, since in my experience, police officers usually prefer gun control to bunches of well armed citizens. It should be interesting to hear what he says, and of course, I will share my findings.