Getting an adult family member on board with prepping should be pretty easy. While it might take some time to convince your significant other that the bunker you want to build is totally worth it, the basic idea of getting someone you live with into the prepper mindset should be relatively simple.
The same cannot be said for children and prepping however. The major draw for adults and prepping is an understanding of how quickly the world around us can fall apart, but this isn’t something a child can easily understand, and if they do, can scare them more than help.
This is why prepping and survival for kids has to be approached very carefully. You want to teach them the skills they’ll need if the SHTF while keeping it fun and lighthearted for them as well. Once they have some functional skills in place you cans tart showing them what else the skills are good for. By approaching prepping and survival in this manner, you can get your kids on board without scaring them off.
Geocaching
Geocaching is basically a game in which you hunt for hidden caches using GPS coordinates. The caches generally contain small trinkets left by the originator of the cache as well as those who have found it as well as a logbook of people that have been there before.
The game is fun because you and your child can get out into nature and hunt down hidden objects that few others know exist. The act is perfect for survival on a number of levels. First, it gets children and adults alike familiar with maps, coordinates, and GPS devices in a fun setting. Second, this perfectly mimics the act of hiding caches of food and weapons that you come back for later in a survival situation. Check out more on geocaching at the Geocaching.com site here.
Camping
This one is a pretty big no-brainer, but getting your kids familiar with camping is a perfect way to prepare them for a survival situation without them even knowing. Heading out into the woods for a few days with only the supplies on your back can help teach a variety of survival and prepping skills.
First and foremost, camping is literally training for living outside of a house. If you have to bug out for a few days or escape a disaster, this is something you definitely want your entire family comfortable with. By making camping fun, the act of camping in a survival situation can be made less scary along with the overlal idea of a survival situation, too.
Camping also helps you to show kids that while a house and technology is great, life wouldn’t be so bad without them. This seems simple, but for kids raised in a more technological world than we were, this idea alone could wreck traditional survival training if not handled early on.
Hiking and Backpacking
Like camping, hiking is a nearly one-for-one mimic of what needs to be done in a survival situation, especially when bugging out. Whether talking about day hikes or full-on backpacking trips, getting out on the trail with everything you need to survive on your back is not only fun, it’s a perfect way to start prepping.
Start kids off easy with short hiking trips and as they get better at these transition them into multi-day backpacking adventures. Once kids are comfortable with hiking and backpacking, you can start introducing the idea of bugging out to them with the ideas they’ve learned already.
Teach Them, and Let Them Plan
For most other prepping and survival skills, make things into a game. Teach kids how to handle guns by showing them how to safely shoot at a shooting range and reward them for their skill.
Involve kids in prepping plans like how to escape your house in case of a fire, and have them organize fire drills. This not only keeps them safe in the face of a fire, but also helps to prepare them for making more complex plans for larger survival situations.
Show your child what it takes to plan a day of food and water for survival and let them help you plan out a 72-hour kit. By getting your kids invested in the planning you can steer clear of the fear involved with prepping and make them enjoy the act of getting your family ready for whatever may come.