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When you’re in survival mode during an emergency, it’s hard to think about ways to keep the kids occupied and entertained, but it’s essential. You don’t want your children to feel any more stress than they already do because of everything going on around them.
It’s vital to try to make things feel as normal as possible when you don’t know what to expect or what can happen next. Check out these five ways to keep kids occupied and busy during any survival situation.
Five Ways to Keep Kids Occupied During Survival
Even if you’re limited to what you have available for your children to use, there are still several great ways to keep children of all ages occupied.
1. Give Them Something to Read
Provide each child with something to read. A good book that isn’t too long or too heavy can keep children entertained while broadening their minds and helping them improve their reading skills.
Choose the Right Books
The types of books you’ll select will depend on the ages of your children. If you have younger children who aren’t great at reading, you can always grab a kid-friendly magazine for them to look through. Kid-friendly magazines often have bright and colorful animations with large text and smaller words that are easier for little ones to recognize.
Reading is Relaxing
If your children are spending time reading books, it can take their minds off everything. It’s good to have something that can put them in a better mood and leave them feeling a bit happier instead of stressed and anxious over being in survival mode and dealing with life-threatening situations.
2. Give Your Kids Some Simple Tasks
Make your children feel like they’re more useful by providing them with a list of simple tasks to complete. These tasks allow the children to get involved in doing things that can help with survival and improve everyone’s chances of getting through a challenging time.
For example, you may want to send two of your children to gather a bit of firewood that you’ll use at the end of the night to start a campfire. Once you have the fire set, you’ll get to stay warm and prepare food over it.
Keep Kids Occupied During Survival: Small Tasks are Welcomed
Some of the other tasks that your children may have no problem completing would include gathering different types of food to bring back to you for inspection. You can look through the items they’ve brought back and make sure everything is safe to consume.
They can help with washing any of the food found with water if you have it available. These small tasks provide kids with something to do while making them feel good about being helpful.
3. Bring Along a Few Toys
While you don’t want to overpack because that can hold you back, you should bring along a few toys for the children to play with to stay busy. It brings a slight sense of normalcy to the situation.
Don’t bother bringing toys that operate with batteries because you don’t want to waste the batteries you’ve collected on the toys. You might end up needing those batteries for flashlights in the future.
Toys to Bring Along
Some of the best toys to bring include dolls, crayons with notepads, coloring books, puzzles, and board games. These are items that won’t require you to use batteries to keep your children occupied. They can use the toys to stay busy and play alone or with one another when there is time for them to do so. Let each child bring a toy or two of their choosing with them when you’re leaving home.
4. Play Some Basic Games With Them
Try to play some basic games with kids that can take their minds off of being in survival mode and leave them smiling and laughing. You can play I Spy and 20 Questions, to name a few of the games that are easy to play without any supplies. It’s a great way to bond with the children, forget about the things happening around you for a few minutes, and spend a few hours while together.
Play Games Together
Not only can you play these games with the children and make it a family ordeal, but you can also teach them how to play these games with one another. It can spark some creativity in their minds, encouraging them to come up with even more fun games to play together to get the time to pass a lot faster. Make a list of any games you can come up with together, and then try to play those games for at least two hours per day to kill some time and keep busy.
5. Remember Some Riddles to Keep Them Thinking
Try to think about some of the riddles you were taught when you were a child and then teach those riddles to your children. When you were a child, your parents may have told you a few riddles to put your brain to the test and to see if you could come up with the correct answer.
It’s something you can pass down to your children, asking them some of the same funny and exciting riddles to see what they come up with right away and a few minutes or hours later. Some riddles are tricky enough to get children thinking for lengthy periods. If they’re worried about trying to solve a tricky riddle, it can take their minds off everything else.
Ways to Keep Kids Occupied During Survival
When you’re in survival mode, you’re going through a lot, but the children are experiencing it all with you. Making the experience as normal as you can for the kids is important. The best way to keep things normal is to develop different ways to keep your children occupied. You can get them to lend a helping hand with some survival tasks, such as collecting firewood and scavenging for food.
However, you can also give them time to read, play with toys, and even meditate. Get creative when dealing with any survival situation. You’ll get to temporarily take the trouble off your children’s minds and leave them feeling more optimistic about what can happen in the future.
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