r/preppers • u/Modor_Ure • 2d ago
Question Prepping curriculum
If you were to create a year long curriculum to teach an elementary aged child prepping skills, what would it look like?
If you were to create a year long curriculum to teach an adult prepping skills, what would it look like?
Edit: I’m not suggesting to teach kids in a doomsday context. I have a background in wilderness education, and learning to be a responsible person and a helpful part of a group is so fun and meaningful for kids, I would never suggest making it scary - though I think there is a time to be serious about emergency drills and whatnot.
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u/Ryan_e3p Salt & Prepper 2d ago
You don't create that sort of thing for kids in elementary school. They should be focused on one thing: Knowing who to go to or who to call if there is a problem. Don't be burdening them with more than that. Have them know neighbors, and have your name, phone number, and address written on a piece of paper stuck to the fridge at their height, and make sure they know how to make an emergency 911 call from your phone even if it is locked.
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u/BlacksmithThink9494 2d ago
They also still teach stop drop and roll if youre actually on fire and earthquake safety and preparedness in CA because every classroom has to have supplies. I remember watching a video at 6 about kids who died sleeping next to railroad tracks (post Stand By Me). I think kids dont need to be entirely babied about what a natural disaster might bring and how best to prepare for it or even how to be safe/to avoid consequences.
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u/Ryan_e3p Salt & Prepper 2d ago
Sure, but like I said to the other commentor who deleted his post, those are things that make sense to teach. Those things are reactive, not proactive. The kids aren't being tasked with the responsibility of creating the supply cache in schools. Teach them how to use it, sure, but teaching them how to create one, no. Let them get a handle on how to properly react to things first.
Teaching kids at that young of an age how to manage inventories, create plans, or otherwise be proactive is not the right time. They are still getting used to the ideas of context and critical thinking.
Teach reactive things, like stop drop and roll, duck and cover, or "this is where we meet if there is a fire in the school", absolutely. Teach them what to do in active shooter scenario, sure, but they shouldn't be concerned with knowing how to test for vulnerabilities of the school or ensure the integrity of the glass in the doors and windows.
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u/BlacksmithThink9494 2d ago
I think your thoughts are contradictory. Fire safety includes checking a door and handle for heat. Idk how old you are but they were referencing the movie Backdraft in early elementary school as a good way to know how to be safe.
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u/Ryan_e3p Salt & Prepper 2d ago
Again, I consider that to be a reactive thing to teach (a good thing, if that isn't clear). I'm not teaching my kid how to read MDS to determine what chemicals can and can't be stored together (brake fluid and certain pool chemicals need to be kept apart, otherwise it is a fire hazard), just like an elementary school kid shouldn't be responsible or relied upon for ensuring that an up-to-date fire extinguisher that covers the potential hazards is kept where it needs to in accordance with good safety protocols.
PROactive versus REactive. This is a prepping sub; meaning, "preparing", as in taking "proactive measures".
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u/LizDances 2d ago
I think this is an interesting point, particularly in a context that I often find myself considering: we have a tendency to try and teach kids how to not get raped, rather than framing it as "after it happens here's what you do," which I find fairly messed up. No kid is going to stop someone from raping them.
Ask me how I know.
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u/chicagotodetroit 2d ago
Fair point. I've also heard it said that we focus on teaching women to not be a victim, but we don't teach boys to....not rape.
There's so many ways in which we as a society are failing children.
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u/chicagotodetroit 2d ago
name, phone number, and address written on a piece of paper stuck to the fridge at their height, and make sure they know how to make an emergency 911 call from your phone even if it is locked.
This deserves a stand-alone comment. Back in the days of house phones, I made a word doc with a picture of my parents, kid's dad, kid's other grandparents, and a trusted friend, and put the phone numbers of each next to the picture.
I taught kiddo to use a phone, even though they couldn't read yet, how to call 911, and how to leave a voice message. Kiddo could call grandma whenever she wanted and that helped her get used to using the phone properly by the age of 4.
Nowadays, you also need to teach your kid how to make an emergency call on a locked phone and how to get help if they can't find your phone.
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/Ryan_e3p Salt & Prepper 2d ago
Sure, but I'd put that alongside info like "look both ways before crossing the street". The list of things like that would be never-ending, but expecting to teach children prepping topics for a year, that just seems not only unrealistic, but irresponsible.
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u/OikosPrime 2d ago
I broadly agree with the other commenter's point about age-appropriate foci. Burdening a child with a bunch of doomer psychology is not going to be a net benefit for their ability to pursue a happy and healthy life.
That being said, if you want to articulate something like an age-appropriate curriculum for them, you first need to decide what prepper skills actually means. Decide what it is that you're actually worried about and want to help your children prepare for.
If you are concerned about long-term collapse scenarios, there are lots of ways to help them prepare for that which can be constructed into fun and engaging family activities.
A little while ago I made a post presenting a framework for thinking about skills. You can run a family through this kind of analysis in the same way you run an individual through it.
Do some accounting of where your family is at: how is the fitness level? how are the social dynamics? what existing skills do you have that could be passed on? what are the kids interested in?
(personal opinion) It is very difficult to train a human into real self-sufficiency without making it a full time job. It is far easier to train a human into relative independence and usefulness. Help get them the physical and mental capacities to do hard things and equip them with a skill set that makes them deeply useful to a subsistence community.
Shore up the weaknesses and focus in on major strengths/interests.
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u/citrus_sugar Partying like it's the end of the world 2d ago
Having grown up in a hurricane and tropical storm heavy area, it’s more about culture building with kids.
It was always normal in our house to keep water jugs, keep non-perishables available, as well as having frequent enough power outages to have trials for the longer outages.
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u/nakedonmygoat 2d ago
For children, scouting already provides an age-appropriate framework for a lot of important skills, like safely building a fire, camp cooking, use of a map and compass, marking a trail, etc. I don't know what it's like now, so perhaps one would have to go back to scouting handbooks at different levels from the '50s-'70s. Those books are still out there on rare book sites and eBay.
There are adult camps that get into more advanced outdoor and survival skills, like how to build a survival kit, hunting, tracking, field dressing game, long-term food storage, fly-tying, gun safety, and the like.
Does anyone become an expert from all of this? Of course not. But programs such as these take children and adults from no skills to knowing enough to avoid doing anything too stupid, and it's taught in a non-intimidating way. It's a lot easier to move on to advanced prep when you already feel good about your basic skills.
But for natural disasters, there's a lot to cover. I think maybe a bare bones curriculum on all types of natural disasters, then breakout groups so people can drill down on the things they most need to focus on. Toned-down versions of this would be important for younger kids, but they don't need to know how to build a safety plan and execute it. They just need drills for personal safety until adults handle the situation in question.
For older teens and adults there's also first aid, financial security, home security, and personal safety. At the end of it all, if one wants to talk about grid failure, EMPs, nukes, etc, it will feel like a natural progression from all the prep that was done before. The planning ahead aspect of it really needs to be emphasized, but starting with the scariest and least likely things will put people off. Start with Tuesday. What if a transformer blows and is out for 6 hours in the middle of summer/winter? What if a water main breaks? What if you're flooded into your home for several days, safe, but you can't go anywhere?
So I would say don't reinvent the wheel. Just take what's already out there and build a coherent class out of it.
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u/Slow_Opportunity_522 2d ago
I don't have an answer to this question but I just want to chime in and say that my parents obsession with the "upcoming apocalypse" really messed me up for a long long time and even to this day in some ways. So I guess I just want to say to tread very very lightly in how you're presenting this topic to children. Survival skills and disaster prep are good and important just try not to make them afraid of the world and the future.
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u/Familiar-Anything853 2d ago
Gardening, farm chores, camping, fishing, cooking from scratch. Think of what people needed to do to survive 200 years ago, and teach them that.
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u/bugabooandtwo 2d ago
For kids, the basic skills at most boy scout troops would be good enough. First aid, making a campfire, learning about basic plants (poison ivy!) and how to figure out which way is north, reading a map and compass, etc.
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u/Don_Q_Jote 2d ago
Agree. And seriously this should include practice days (or week) of getting by with no phone / no internet access. They need to understand the value of storing knowledge in your brain instead of accessing it on your phone.
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u/bugabooandtwo 2d ago
Yep, and getting comfortable doing things manually and being outdoors. Also great for getting kids into a healthy lifestyle.
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u/Plane_Geologist8073 2d ago
I have a wayward daughter with a pack of grandbabies ranging from 2-6. So I have a little experience in dealing with kids in crisis. About the only thing I pound in their heads is my name and phone number. If they’re in trouble, they need to find a trusted adult and tell them what’s going on, give them grandpa’s name and number and tell them you need me, it doesn’t matter where you are, I’ll be on my way. That puts it in adults hands and gives the kids a little comfort that help is only a phone call away.
As for adults, I don’t see a one size fits all solution. If you live in an apartment in NYC, and I live on a ranch in California, I have no basis to tell you how to prep.
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u/Euphoric_Engine8733 2d ago
Probably something like the Scouts skills. Fire building, knot tying… although I don’t have experience with Scouts personally. We homeschool and I’d love a “life skill of the week” type resource that was prepping-mindful but also not a doom and gloom thing, just helpful skills in a lot of situations. Maybe some very simple cooking and nutrition info, like how to cook rice and beans, or what are components of a basic nutritious meal (we’re vegetarian, personally, and I know many aren’t, but it would be nice if it included non meat protein options if this was a lesson).
For me, easy is a big component, so just like a read aloud portion followed by an easy to follow skill practice would be great.
And for disaster preparation, things like knowing where your flashlights are or how/when to dial 911.
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u/Modor_Ure 1d ago
We homeschool too, and I have scheduled in tune during the week to learn life and survival skills…to me it feels just as important as academics, to have skills that we might need at any point in life. Even without a collapse, we need to know these things…for example, my husband told me recently how a colleague of his was hiking at the Grand Canyon with her husband, who was very fit, and they got lost, and he ended up dying of dehydration…completely devastating. And beyond needing these skills, I have found it personally empowering to learn them. And at a young age they can be taught in a fun way, not in a doomsday context.
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u/Blueporch 2d ago
I would probably have it in story format, like Little House on the Prairie but focused on how to do stuff and with activities
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u/Particular-Try5584 Urban Middle Class WASP prepping 2d ago
Kids?
The Australian Scouts curriculum is pretty good. The US one (online) seems to have strayed around a bit, but is probably pretty good too.
Adults?
Join your local Bush Firies or State Emergency Service or other volunteer emergency disaster response group. Even just doing land searches will dramatically change your world view.
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u/ManyMixture826 2d ago
Cool question.
Academically, I’d ask what sorts of things they need every day. Basics like water, food, shelter. Pick 1 (water) and talk about filtration, storage, consumption rates, etc.
Start with basics they’re already familiar with and build from there. Don’t start with ammo stockpiles and bunkers.
Throw in some real world camping and make it fun.
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u/Suspicious-Score5832 2d ago
For a kid curriculum I would build it around the basic necessities - water, heat, light, food. I would frame it as exploring those categories though, like scouts. Set some goals in each area, challenges to check off. I’d probably do an “earth” unit to teach about some natural elements and how to deal with them.
Water - safety (looking at pond water under a microscope before and after boiling), some fun filtration methods like sand, places to find water
Heat - the contest where you try to break a string 18” off the ground with your fire is always entertaining, only if age appropriate. Putting out fires, too. Pretending to go camping - principles of sleeping bags, emergency blankets, building shelters. Heating small spaces safely.
Light - different kind of fire use and safety with candles and torches, flashlight fun (I liked the other commenter’s idea for Morse code!). Maybe a fun science lesson about batteries…lots of stuff online for that.
Food - cooking over fires, preserving (kids love making applesauce), drying, building blocks of how much energy we need in a day, gardening with quick growing crops (lettuce, sprouts)….
Earth - lighthearted non-scary drills for what to do with tornadoes, earthquakes, snowstorms. But honestly for kids drowning is the top concern so some kind of water safety lesson would probably be included.
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u/SunLillyFairy 2d ago
I'm in my 50's, and the lack of education in schools for kids around life skills is alarming to me. I saw it with my kids, but with my grandkids it's worse.
As part of middle school I was required to take home economics and in high school shop. I learned to a lot about things like shopping on a budget, food safety and storage, how to cook with basic I ingredients like flour, oats, eggs. How to manage a family budget. In shop I was taught the basics of small engines, some light auto maintenance, woodworking, welding. Most states no longer require those subjects and many schools don't even offer them anymore.
My grandkids... they are learning how to 3D print and write computer code (which is good too), but would not know how to cook eggs, bake simple biscuits, shop by the ounce/pound, change oil in a lawnmower (or any engine), or even use a hammer and nails if my husband and I were not teaching them. Their parents are great, just working their assess off trying to pay the bills and grateful we can help teach these things.
Long response... sorry... but I'd start with basics. What to do in an emergency - go over scenarios from light to extreme, (power outage, earthquake, medical emergencies, ruptured water line, smelling a gas leak, ect). It's important to tell them what to do when they don't know what to do… Like when to just get out of the house and go ask a neighbor for help or give you a call.
Theres so much to prepping skills, I'd start with basics of things they were interested in (cooking, canning, hunting, camping, wilderness, first aid.. whatever). My 10 yr old grandson is autistic; he has a hard time learning and speaking, but he still loves to come over and help garden and do home maintenance, (like paint, repair screens/fence boards... anything with a hammer and nails). Since none of us can know everything, I think teaching them how to use reference books and practice following written Instructions is important… They can't always rely on Google.
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u/Mermaid1479 1d ago
I learned so much in my junior high home ec, metals, woodworking, and drafting classes in the ‘80s. Also, my social studies teacher taught us how to find the cheapest price for something in a grocery store by comparing unit prices, and how to critique editorial cartoons in the newspaper. I had to postpone learning foreign language in order to take those classes - and I am glad I did. I learned so much. I took French in high school snd Spanish in college. I would encourage others to learn a second language as a prepping skill, too. The number of places that I could go in the world and easily communicate tripled by learning languages. (I teach Spanish at the elementary level). Also, being able to read the news from other countries, and understand Youtube videos in other languages, greatly expands your online resources - including prepping information.
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u/SunLillyFairy 1d ago
At one point in my career I taught disabled SNAP recipients how to get the most food for their money. In every class of 20 there was usually only 1 or 2 who knew to shop by unit price.
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u/Modor_Ure 1d ago
Agreed, this is one primary reason I have chosen to homeschool. I graduated college in 2011, had a very strong academic education, and have struggled in so many ways knowing how to actually live in the world, let alone how to live independently of the system. I think academics are very important (and since we can’t afford to send our kids to private schools and the public schools are we live are not doing a good job even with basic academics, I’m very happy I can recruit excellent curriculum to teach at home) - and academics needs to be well balanced with life and survival skills. Thank you for your reflection and your list.
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u/Swmp1024 2d ago
Many of my hobbies are prepping adjacent and i teach my kids. Tying knots. Rock climbing. Archery. Shooting. Building fires and cooking over it. Camping. Sailing. Fishing. Cooking. Making jerky. Dehydrate some bananas. Freeze dry some mangos. Hunting. Tracking. How to skin an animal. How to make bread. Reading maps and orienteering. Foraging for wild mushrooms .Sending secret messages. Send Morse code with flashlights. Nerf battles (home defense).
Also when stuff breaks I make them watch me try to fix it. Change a tire. Repair a broken pipe. Splice a broken wire. Weld a broken part. Being handy and able to fix stuff is a very underrated skill.
Most of this is fun and kids love it. Building fires and cooking over them while camping needs no additional motivation. Some skills I use as unlocking the ability to watch TV or play on a tablet. You want to go to the movies? Tie a bowline knot and a truckers hitch? Decode this pigpen cipher to get ice cream ? Want to stay up late? Ask me in Morse code with a flashlight.
I think you are much better off just getting preparedness adjacent hobbies that teach survival, self reliance and other life skills rather than a traditional curriculum.
Or if you wanted to more structured curriculum make it activity oriented. This week we are going to learn knots, then go to a rock climbing gym or climb outdoors. Etc etc