Kaboutjie SA Mommy Blogs by Lynne Huysamen
Good parenting involves protecting your children from possible situations that can bring harm to them. Therefore, it is your ultimate responsibility as a parent to educate your children so that they can know how to respond to an emergency. This involves empowering them with basic survival skills.
Since kids love hiking and camping during the holidays therefore when they are in the woods, they should know how they can survive.
Read on and find out some of this survival skills:
- Situational Awareness
Situational awareness is an important element to teach your kids so that they can learn to survive in outdoors. You can teach your child to develop the mindset and instincts that will help him stay calm during a crisis so that he can make the appropriate decision. Let him know that panic leads to making wrong choices which could worsen the situation. To achieve this, I recommend that you capitalize on your outdoor executions to test their skills and their awareness of the surrounding.
You can organize for a drill bit without their knowledge so that you can access how they respond to certain situations. Teaching your kids such a survival skill is long-term empowerment because he will use the knowledge that he gained and even pass it on to his future kids.
- Self-defense
Equipping your kid with confidence is part of self-defense which is ideal during an emergency. Besides it involves weapon training, wild animal awareness and other tactics. You can teach your child some basic knife skills since it is a crucial tool especially on outdoors. The knife is used in sharpening, cutting and for self-defense. When your child has mastered how a knife can be useful to him his confidence increases, and he can survive an attack.
You should not be ignorant of the world out there; the society is evil, and therefore it is necessary to equip your children with some of these tools. However, you should teach your child to know when to use it so that he can’t go around hurting people. You need to teach your child how to survive attacks from furious animals like lions and bears. This is basically because running during such a situation can be disastrous. Therefore, let him know that anything can happen, and he should be prepared to handle the situation.
There are a lot of tutorials related to these on the internet which can be helpful to your child.
- Foraging for Food
In most cases, kids who are in a stressful situation that makes them feel endangered get hungry quickly. Therefore, it is essential to teach your child how to forage for food. This will enable him to distinguish between edible and non-edible plants. Furthermore, it ensures that your child doesn’t eat poisonous plants.
Additionally, you should teach your child to hunt using a sharpened stick or an ordinary tool like a knife especially when he has gone camping in the wild. Your child should be able to make simple trap’s which enables him to small animals in the surrounding. How can they improve their hunting skills? Hunting has been revolutionized from the days that people used to chase the animals until they are tired so that they can have a chance of catching them. To survive in the wild, they will need these animals to be your source of proteins.
Well before they start setting up traps, they should correctly understand the terrain and the type of animals found in that area, their habits and possibly their routes and habitats. This will enable them to know where to set a trap and before a long time they will have a catch.
They can also learn some basics on fishing especially if there are surrounded by a water body which could be an ideal fishing ground. You should cause your child to be more cautious when in aquatic environments because most of the dangerous predator’s hunt in these places (1).
- Water
A normal human being can survive three days without your water. You are required to teach your child how to survive without water or be able to look for water especially if he is hunting and camping in the wild. Most reported cases of deaths include: dehydration or drinking contaminated water which had harmful pathogens and toxins.
However, some common sources of water include dams, springs, rivers, and lakes. Additionally, some vines have a water content which can be wrung out. When they find a water source, the first thing to do is to think of ways on how to purify it. There are several methods of water purification which you should teach your child both traditional and modern.
Additionally, children should be cautious when looking for water because of possible animal attacks. Animals require water as human and therefore following tracks that lead to water sources can make them susceptible to animal attacks. The most important thing is to ensure the water is safe and store well (2).
- Building Temporary Shelter
Teach your kids that retaining heat is essential for survival. What should they do after realizing that during the hunting expeditions they are far away from their camp and darkness is creeping? Well if your child is in such a situation, it is advisable for them to set up a shelter rather than tracing their way back to the camp.
Putting up a shelter is not a complicated process. All they need to be keen on is to ensure the shelter is elevated above from the ground and there is no possibility of dampness. Additionally, they should set up a roof to shield them from rain and biting insects. They should Ensure they construct a smaller shelter to prevent heat loss and they can supplement this by using pine and moss leaves to ensure they stay warm.
If they have some warm clothing, it will be an added advantage. However, the shelter will not be complete without a fire. Fire helps in scaring away the animals from coming near the shelter. However, how can one start a fire without using a matchstick? You can teach your kids how to start Fire by rubbing two sticks against each other than using grass and sticks to light it. They can also concentrate sun rays on some dry leaves using lenses which is also another perfect way to learn how to start a fire (3).
- Teach Your Child First Aid and Communication Skills
Injuries are common, especially during hunting. Therefore, if your child is equipped with first aid skills, he can be in a position to rescue himself or a colleague. They should familiarize themselves with herbs, tree barks which are medicinal.
It is advisable when preparing them for camping they should carry a first aid kit. It can be tiring to find herbs or to improvise a first aid kit.
Lastly, it is essential to teach them to have good listening and communication skills. Ensure you show them to be so sensitive and active all the time. They should not sleep anywhere especially when they are tired. You need to be very cautious because you are in the wild where danger is unpredictable. They should have the right attitude and don’t expect that they will lead the normal life where you used to eat three times a day and when you are thirsty you can quench it with a cold drink. They need to learn to survive, and it will be better if you get to understand the following basic rules:
- They can survive three minutes without oxygen
- They can spend three hours without regulation of body temperature.
- They can survive for three days without water
- Human beings can go for three weeks without food.
Therefore, if your child finds himself in an environment without food, they should not panic all they should do is to cope with the situation since this doesn’t have to spoil all the fun that is waiting for you.
Teach your kids, and if they get to learn even one new survival skill, then you have accomplished a lot as a parent. This is because the best gift you can give your children is to be independent and self-sufficient (4).
About The Author
Melanie Campbell, the outdoor and camping enthusiast behind Ardent Footsteps, has been enjoying this wonderful world since 2010. She shares expert advice when it comes to camping and trekking. With the main focus on making the most out of camping and outdoor adventures, Melanie will make you want to go out today!
