Being prepared for emergencies is something every parent thinks about. Now I am not a parent, but I do "play one on TV" so to speak. Here's a little idea we came up with to make sure that the little peanut, who just turned four, is prepared in case of emergency.
When she was three we started working with her to learn her first, middle and last name and her dad's first and last name. Then we worked on learning her grandfather and uncle's full names and what city they live in. We talked about it and then quizzed her once in a while to make sure she remembered and could recall the info if needed.
What we thought would be our biggest challenge was to teach her daddy's phone number. Since she can barely count to ten, learning and remembering a phone number seemed daunting to say the least. But then I remembered that she has been learning and singing songs by memory since before she was three.
So here's what I did. I made up a little song of daddy's 10-digit phone number and we started singing it. It's a catchy tune and easy to remember. So catchy in fact that I often can't get it out of my head, which can be a little annoying at times -- but it's worth it! I added in some fun by getting louder and louder as the song goes along so that by the end you can be really silly singing the last two digits. We started singing it a few weeks ago and she has it mastered.
La-la-la --
La-la-la --
La
La
La-la
La-la!
I would strongly recommend teaching all 10 digits of a phone number because if something happened to your or your family while out of town, knowing only seven digits will not be very helpful.
Today I can ask:
1) What's your name?
2) What's your dad's name?
3) What's your phone number?
She can answer each question easily and with very little concentration. It gives us a lot of comfort to know she can help herself if she needs to. We made if fun so that it's a silly game and we praise enthusiastically when she gets it all correctly. Make a BIG deal about their success on this stuff. It's important, so there's no chance of praising too much I don't think.
I've heard her singing the phone number song in the car, while helping in the kitchen and getting ready for bed at night. It gives me and her dad a lot of comfort to know she's armed with vital information that will help her get help as soon as possible in an emergency.
If you try this technique I'd love to hear about your success, what tune you chose and how it worked out for your family. Please let me know!
1 comment:
Thanks, Kalani! I did that with Tatum, but haven't yet bothered with Teague. Good reminder.
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