You’ve made your plan, built your kit and go bag, what now?
Practice makes perfect! At least 2 times a year have a drill. Link the drill time to changing the batteries in your smoke detector, or the other way around, makes things easier to remember for me!
Have drills, just like they do in schools. The purpose of drills is to familiarize everyone with your plan. The more familiar everyone is with it the less likely they are to have those first few minutes of panic. It becomes more of a habit; smoke detector goes off in the middle of the night, everyone knows what to do and where to go, that momentary panic is lessened.
Does your daycare provider have a plan? Do you know what it is? Practice with them!
Go to the meeting places you’ve designated. Have an emergency contact? Introduce your children to them. They’ll be much more comfortable when told to call 911 in an emergency if they know who, what or where that is. We tell our children not to talk to stranger so let’s make these emergency contacts someone they know!
For more information go to Ready.gov