Teaching Kids Situational Awareness

For those that teach their kids(or someone else's) about situational awareness. How do you go about that?

Jack House said:

For those that teach their kids(or someone else's) about situational awareness. How do you go about that?

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Hide n Seek more or less. It's a great way to teach kids observational skills, and awareness, and they get to have fun too.

That's exactly what I was thinking. And harmless pranks for the older kids.

I also teach my daughter how to track. I'm not a pro, but I teach her what I know. Learning how to identify different markings and scrapes makes her look at things a lot differently.

Well, if you let them do their own thing, they'll teach each other (ie: jump out and scare each other, compete to find the coolest stuff in the woods or on the beach, etc.).

RPGamingGirl said:

Well, if you let them do their own thing, they'll teach each other (ie: jump out and scare each other, compete to find the coolest stuff in the woods or on the beach, etc.).

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Not when your nearest neighbor is a mile a way, and 5 miles to the nearest house with kids. Otherwise that would be a good thing. Sometimes you need to help, besides I like playing with my kids; even if I look silly doing it.

At different stages in their life, I've taken an opportunity to use circumstances that happened to others or the family, to illustrate the need to be alert.

An example, my 19 year old daughter was coming ome from work Monday night, 11:00 pm; she saw a van leave the mall when she did. Upon getting two blocks from the house, low and behold she saw the van again (or one very similar). She drove a different route to see if the van or other vehicle was following her. She then drove to a supermarket close by and pulled up to the front door to see if the van followed her. After determining it wasn't, she returned home, cautiously.

This circumstance was discussed and reviewed back when she first got her drivers license; it was prompted from when one of her classmates at HS was nabbed by her ex-boyfriend. She was ultimately found alive, but bruised and sexually assaulted. We sat down and analyzed this scenario when it occurred to see what would have been a better route for this young lady to have taken, instead of letting this ex get his hands on her.

I was very proud of how my daughter handled herself the other night. She remained calm and stayed focused on making good choices, but the adrenaline was flowing.

YMMV.

Small duffle filled with Flash-Bangs.
:banana:

You'd be amazed how well those work -on anyone- when you sneak up on em, and lob an FB into the room...
They tend to become extremely situationally aware, from then on,..

OC for ME said:

Situational awareness? SITUATIONAL AWARENESS?? SITUATIONAL AWARENESS???

Heck, I can't get my two boys to keep it inside the bowl when they go to the bathroom, let alone lift the seat up. I'll work on harder stuff when I get past that.

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I would work on the aim, not the situational awareness.......sounds like they know where to go!! :lol:

OC for ME said:

True, but knowing how to get there is not the same as paying attention to what it is you are supposed to do once there. :banghead:

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Lucky you!! I have three daughters and one son....he was easy...his mother swore to him, if he didn't get better at aiming, after she got done with him, he would have to sit down!! :lol:

He figured it out real quick! He also like hitting the Cheerios! :monkey

MatieA said:

Not when your nearest neighbor is a mile a way, and 5 miles to the nearest house with kids. Otherwise that would be a good thing. Sometimes you need to help, besides I like playing with my kids; even if I look silly doing it.

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Ah, well yeah, my kids are all about 2 years apart, so if i stand back they usually learn more from each other than i would have thought to teach them myself.

I was an only child and didn't really have friends; my dad took me camping a lot with his best friend who was an ex bounty hunter. They taught me a lot of odd skills, lol. Mostly i would just wander off on my own, and they would wait and let me find my way back. I guess they were confident they could find me if i went too far. Maybe i should have been terrified, lol. But i figured out how to determine what direction i was going and remember landmarks, figure what animals were around by tracks, sound, and sometimes smell (!). They just sort of pointed me in the right direction and waited to see what i came up with. I guess it was a mix of awareness training and critical thinking exercises.

Jack House said:

For those that teach their kids(or someone else's) about situational awareness. How do you go about that?

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Let them run into walls. It hurts, but true learning involves pain.

Don't let them kill or serious injure themselves.

I use simple questions designed to test my little one's ability to observe and recall things going on around us.
- What color was the shirt the man in the black jacket was wearing?
- Were where the hands of the lady wearing the hat?
- How many people did we just pass?
- Where is an exit?
- What was the first thing placed in the cart?
I'll also toss in a couple Are you sure response questions for good measure.
I have found that this provides an added benefit of keeping them behaving correctly out in public too since I refuse to be THAT GUY with the unruly children.

j4l said:

They tend to become extremely situationally aware, from then on,..

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I believe the medical term for this is "hyper-vigilant PTSD..."

Flash bangs... Sheesh!

The way I approach this is I pick out things I know he's not noticing, but which he either should be or is about to, given his age, and I simply ask him about it. Such as, "Do you see the puppy with the different-colored ears?" when he was three, to "I wonder why those two guys are just sitting in that car, watching all the school children walk by?" when he was 9.

He actually answer that one smack on: "Could be they're waiting to take some kid. Or maybe they're just friends and are waiting for one of their own kids."

BANG!

He's aware, but well-grounded. He's not over-the-top.

How'd you like that flash-bang, j4l?