Here we are again with another session of Family Survival School with suggestions to get your family members involved in preparing for survival.  I hope you’ll try at least one of these activities with your family this weekend.  Ready?  Here we go!

Call a family meeting and set a number of survival goals to work on for one year.  If you like, set goals for a month first, then set goals for the next three months, and so on, until you think you can plan for a year.  The idea is to set goals you can reach.  Write up your goals on a big poster chart and put it in a visible location, such as in the kitchen or dining room.  Have each family member take responsibility for various goals.  You know best what little ones are capable of doing.  Be sure to post updates regularly on the chart.  For example, put a star by your child’s name each week she learns to tie a new knot.  Use your imagination.  Be creative and have fun with this!

Spend a day visiting a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen.  You don’t have to volunteer.  For now, just see how it works and who they serve.  Many of the people you will meet who are having a rough time of it may have survival knowledge to share from their life’s experiences.

You may recall in a previous session we talked about doing without electronic gadgets for the day or the weekend.  Now take things a step further and expand on that idea.  Make a list of everyday things you could do without.  Think of things we take for granted.  Then spend a day doing without them for practice.  Do this several different times.  For example, go a day without running water.  Consider where you'd get water and how you can best use what little you would have access to.  Keep the car in the garage and walk, bike, or take the bus or cab if you need to go somewhere.  Again, use your imagination and do your best to be resourceful.  Get used to the idea of being deprived and making do.  Remember, this is preparation for survival.  One day we may be forced to do without a number of things we think we just have to have.

            Well, that’s it.  This is our last session of Family Survival School for now.  Oh, that’s not the end of the tips you’ll see here on John’s blog, you can be sure of that, so keep checking in to see what’s new.  There might be another Family Survival School session later, but it is the end of this series.

As I said in an earlier post, there won’t be any quiz.  Do you think you got a passing grade?  Well, you’ll know soon enough.  Life puts us all through enough tests, doesn’t it?  And the way things are going these days with things changing so fast, we all may be tested in ways we hadn’t thought of.  So, be ready.  Like the slogan at the top of this page says, “Survival—It’s about living!”

Click here for Part 6.