When our students arrive we go over a lot with them, including some household safety. Other bits of safety information comes as we go and others as things come up. We talk about locking doors and 911 right away but leave the hurricane talks until one shows up in the forecast (or they ask about it). So what are good things to cover? Well, basically anything safety related and anything that you would talk about with your own children.
Start with:
House rules: candles, electronics/outlets, hair styling tools--don't leave unattended, unplug when not in use, so forth.
Locking doors—even when you are home (hell, especially when you are home).
Kitchen rules (as that is where most home accidents happen).
When and how to call 911—every country has a different number for emergencies and some have multiple numbers for police vs fire vs ambulance. Have them put your address in their phone somewhere and written on the fridge so they can give it to the operator if needed.
Fire safety: where is your extinguisher, where should they go in case in of a fire, no locking bedroom doors at night—teens and kids will sleep right through an alarm.
Then move to speciality, either later on or as the issue comes up:
Hurricane: go over your plan, if you have dealt with them before you know that this is; also make sure mom and dad back home understand that you do know how to handle the situation and there is a plan in place.
Tornado: what to do, my hall bath is where we would go, grab at least the dogs too (if time permits).
Earthquake: doorway? I am not sure we have had a total of one light earthquake on the east coast in my memory.
Other storms: thunderstorms, wind storms, floods, blizzards.
Outdoor safety: for example we live in a rural area with snakes and bears…don’t approach either. Get the dogs and people and go inside and tell an adult.
Outside the House Safety:
School safety: which is usually covered by the school, but we go over a few things like reporting issues or concerns to us.
Beach safety: rip currents, swim with not against; sunscreen; hydrate.
No hitchhiking! You would think a million horror movies and crime shows would have taught this by now but no, we did have a student that was like “this is totally normal where I live”.
Cars: Don’t ride with anyone that has been drinking or likes to play on their phone while driving, call us and we will come get you.
This is just a quick example of safety related things to discuss, you might need to change some based on where you live and your household.
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