Safe at Home Safe Alone Youth Book Name: ________________________________ *18 USC 707 Acknowledgements Principal Author: Sharon Race, 4-H Program Coordinator, Prince William County Supporting Author: Linda King, 4-H Program Leader, Prince William County Project Coordinator: K athleen Jamison, 4-H Youth Development, Curriculum and Learning, Virginia Tech Produced by: Communications and Marketing, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech Editing: Nancy Templeman, Communications and Marketing, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech Layout: Chris Cox, Communications and Marketing, College of Agri- culture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech Funding: Virginia Cooperative Extension Original Curriculum 4-H Agents Nancy Pfafflin and Penny Risdom, with Design Team: a ssistance from colleagues Bonnie Braun, Mary Johnson, Barbara Joseph, and Pat Southard First Revision Author: 4-H Agent Deborah Carter, Prince William County, with assistance from 4-H Educator Susanne O’Neill Second Revision Author: 4-H Program Leader Linda King, Prince William County, with assistance from 4-H Agent Deborah Carter Special acknowledgement to the elementary guidance counselors of Prince William County schools under the leadership of Jerilyn Christensen and Etta Jane Hall. i ii Table of Contents Safe at HomeSafe Alone Safe at Home/Safe Alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 How to Use This Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Pretest: What If Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Pretest Answer Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Section I: Preparing to Stay Home Alone Chapter 1: Are You Ready? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Chapter 2: Making Family Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Chapter 3: Creating a Safe Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Chapter 4: Using the Kitchen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Chapter 5: Dealing with Emotions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Chapter 6: Planning Your Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Section II: Safety Suggestions Chapter 7: Basic Safety Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Chapter 8: Key Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Chapter 9: Telephone Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Chapter 10: Computer/Internet Safety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Chapter 11: Answering the Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Chapter 12: Stranger Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Section III: Handling Emergencies Chapter 13: Mini-, Maxi-, or Non-Emergency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Chapter 14: Emergency – Dial 911 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Chapter 15: Medical Emergency and First Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Chapter 16: Weather Emergencies/Disasters and Emergency Preparedness . . . . . 73 Chapter 17: Fire Emergency and Fire Escape Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Section IV The Final Review Summary of the Safe at Home/Safe Alone Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Team Game: Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Post-test: What If Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Post-test Answer Sheet: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Youth Evaluation for Safe at Home/Safe Alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Certificate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 iii Activity Matrix Chapter Activity Title Activity Description Page Chapter 1 Ask Yourself Questionnaire 8 Chapter 2 Got Rules? Fill in the blank 11 Chapter 3 Check It Out Checklist 17 Spot the Hazard Fun sheet 21 Chapter 4 Healthy Snacks Identify good choices 24 Recipe for a Healthy Snack Activity 25 Chapter 5 Real Danger or Not? Circle the answer 29 I’m Bored Bag Activity 31 Chapter 6 My Plan Tear-out sheet 37 Chapter 7 Safety Rules RULE Match the word 40 Chapter 8 Safe or Unsafe? Check the answer 42 Chapter 9 What Would You Say? Role playing 45 Important Phone Numbers Tear-out sheet 47 Chapter 10 Screen Safety Fill in the blank 50 Chapter 11 Lights, Camera, Action Role playing 53 Chapter 12 Talking About Strangers Questionnaire 57 More Talk About Strangers Word search 58 Chapter 13 Mini, Maxi or Non-Emergency Circle the answer 60 Be Ready for Anything! Matching 61 Chapter 14 W A N T! Tear-out sheet 63 Set the Scene Role playing 65 Chapter 15 First Aid Kit Activity 73 Chapter 16 Emergency Preparedness Kit Matching 77 Chapter 17 Talking about Fire Safety Questionnaire 80 Fire Escape Plan Fill out the sheet 81 iv Safe at Home/Safe Alone A 4-H and Family and Consumer Sciences Curriculum for 9 to 11 Year Olds Introduction Safe at Home/Safe Alone is a Virginia Cooperative Extension program designed to help families develop the life skills they need when the decision is made for a child to stay home alone. At some point, you will be able to stay home alone. You and your family will decide together when the time is right for you and for how long. It is best to start with short peri- ods of time. For example, you would stay home alone for one hour during the day and gradually increase the length of time. When this time comes, you are considered in self care. Self care means taking care of yourself without any adults in the house. You will need to be very responsible when you are home alone, and this book will help you. It is filled with information and activities to explain the skills you need to be a competent kid who can stay home alone safely. How to Use This Material Safe at Home/Safe Alone is a workbook created to help you get ready to stay home alone. There are four sections for you to complete. They are: Preparing to Stay Home Alone; Safety Suggestions; Handling Emergencies; and the Final Review. You will need to spend one to two hours on each section. You can break each section down into half- hour or 15-minute study sessions if you find them too long. There is also a leader’s guide to go along with your youth workbook. An adult will need to guide you and answer your questions. If the leader is from your school or a community club and not your parent, be sure to mark the information you want to discuss with your family when you get home. The answers to the pretest and post-test are in the leader’s guide, as well as answers to all activities throughout the youth workbook. After you have completed the program, keep this book in a safe place where you can go back and read over it from time to time. It will be a great reference to keep. 1 Pretest: What If Stories Please read the following “What If ... Stories” and decide which answer best describes what you should do if you were home alone. You will find the Answer Sheet to write down your answers on the page following the questions. 1. Your family decides you can stay home alone after school, but you are scared and not sure you want to. What should you do? A. Talk to your family about your fears. B. Go to a friend’s house every day so you don’t have to stay alone. C. Stay at home and never say anything. D. Talk to your friend and not your family about how you feel. 2. Your family rule is, “no friends over when you are home alone,” but you are bored. What should you do? A. Keep calling your parent to ask if you can please invite a friend over. B. Watch TV for the whole time. C. Sneak a friend in the house and keep it a secret. D. Make a daily time schedule to keep you busy when you are home alone. 3. You arrive home, but your key is not in your pocket. What should you do? A. Sit on the step for 2 hours until your family gets home from work. B. Try to break a window to get into your house. C. Go to a trusted neighbor house who keeps a spare key to get it. D. Go to a friend’s house and stay there. 4. You are home alone after school and hungry. You want a grilled cheese sandwich, but the family rule is you cannot use the stove. What should you do? A. Call a parent at work and beg to use the stove this one time. B. Use the stove carefully to prove you can do it safely. C. Go next door and ask a trusted neighbor to fix a grilled cheese sandwich for you. D. Choose another snack food that does not need cooking. 2 5. You pick up the phone and it is not working. What should you do? A. Nothing. B. Go to a trusted neighbor’s house to call your parent, so they can call the phone company. C. Take the phone apart and try to fix it. D. Just wait until your family comes home to take care of it. 6. A man calls and asks to talk to your dad. What should you do? A. Tell him your dad is busy and take a message from him. B. Hang up. C. Give him your dad’s number at work. D. Tell him you are home alone and your dad is at work. 7. You are on the computer chatting with your friends and someone comes online who you do not know. He wants to meet you after school tomorrow. What should you do? A. Give him your name and phone number instead. B. Ask him for a picture so you can see what he looks like. C. Shut down the computer and tell your family what happened. D. Pick a place to meet him after school. 8. A woman you do not know comes to the door. She has had car trouble and wants to use the phone. What should you do? A. Tell her your parents are not home and you do not know what to do. B. Unlock the door and let her in. C. Go outside to see if you can help her with the car. D. Tell her through the door to go to the next door neighbor’s house. 9. You are walking home from school and notice someone is following you. What should you do? A. Turn around and ask the person, “Why are you following me?” B. Walk quickly to catch up with a group of kids and walk with them. C. Run into the woods to lose the stranger. D. Throw rocks at the stranger. 3 10. You need to make a 911 emergency phone call. What should you do? A. Say, “I am in danger, please come quick.” B. Say your name and address and hang up. C. Say what happened, your address, your name, and your telephone number and stay on the line with the operator. D. Say, “I can’t find my dog, can you come here?” 11. Your little brother has fallen from the second floor. He is lying motionless at the bottom of the steps. What should you do? A. Pick him up and carry him to a trusted neighbor. B. Call 911 and give them the emergency information. C. Call your mom at work. D. Throw some cold water on him to wake him up. 12. You are watching TV and an emergency warning comes on and announces a severe thunderstorm in the area. What should you do? A. Turn off the T.V., stay away from the windows, and get out the flashlight. B. Call a friend to talk until the storm passes because you are scared. C. Go outside to see if you see the storm coming. D. Take a bath. 13. Y ou are doing your homework and smell smoke, but don’t see any flames. What should you do? A. Continue doing your homework until you see flames. B. Go to your phone and call 911. C. Go outside your house to call 911 (from a trusted neighbor’s or on a cell phone). D. Wait until your mom comes home in 15 minutes. Let’s see how you did. The answers are in the leader’s guide. 4