Five Ways to Make Emergency Drills Fun and Effective

by Miriam Caldwell | More from this Blogger

16 Sep 2006 08:58 PM

It is important to have your family practice what to do during an emergency. Schools are required to have fire drills on a regular basis, and you should too. If you live in an earthquake prone area you should have earthquake drills as well. The goal of these drills is to help your children know what to do during an emergency. You should avoid scaring your children or making them worry unnecessarily. Here are five tips to help make the drills effective and fun.

1) Before your first drill teach your family what you expect of them. This can include where to go, who to call, and what exit path to take. You may run through different scenarios with your children before you complete the drill.

2) You should time the drills and try to complete it faster each time. If your family completed the drill correctly and shaved time off the exercise you should reward them with a treat of some kind

3) It is important to vary the times of the drills. After the first drill, you should not notify your family that there is going to be another drill. At first you may practice your drills once a week, until your family becomes comfortable with what to do. After that you can hold your drills once a month.

4) If you have seasonal occurrences, such as tornadoes, then you should hold a review session just before the season begins again. You may also want to review winter safety and pool safety with your children at the appropriate times.

5) Involve your children with planning the drills. You may have the children rotate through being in charge of conducting the drills for the month. Young children will enjoy being able to be in control of something like this.

If you work to make this a positive experience you will help your children not to worry. You can also prepare your family so that you may be able to avoid tragedy. Drills work best when completed on a regular basis.

Learn more about Miriam Caldwell

Miriam is a SAHM mom of three children. She has a daughter who is seven, and two sons, four and two. She loves being a parent and spending time with her children.

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