I came across a great website recently, thanks to our neighbourhood watch newsletter.The emergency services across Australia have created a Triple Zero Website for children. It's a set of cartoon scenarios which require either police, fire, or ambulance help. It helps kids (kindy and primary schoolers) know what to do in an emergency.
I'm what I call a 'catastrophiser'. I tend to imagine the worst. So I have wondered what would happen if there was an emergency in the house - would the kids know what to do? I even used to wonder if you could ring 000 just to have a practice (but knew we better not).
This website shows kids what counts as an emergency, when to ring 000 and what to say. Even I found it helpful and when I had reason to call 000 for the fire department recently, I knew how the phone conversation would go and I was ready for it.
I think it has sunk in for the kids too, as after we played on the website, they created an emergency game outside, calling 000, asking for fire, or police or ambulance and explaining the situation to each other over the 'phone'.
That was time well spent online.
From one catastrophiser to another, thanks for this website. I too was thinking it wasn't really appropriate to ring triple zero for a practice run, but having never (thankfully) had to do it, how would I teach my kids what to expect when the fire in our house means we have to leap over the neighbours fence, using our wheelie bins and breaking our ankles on the other side??? :-/
ReplyDeleteCaroline E
Happy to help Caroline! I've always wondered about doing fire drills in our home, which I suspect could freak us all out more than being helpful. Ahh, the joys of catatrophising!
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