Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Prepping as a lone wolf is a much different experience than prepping with a family. A lot of the time, it’s having a family that brings the importance of prepping to light.
The trouble is that your spouse and kids aren't watching political or global news and don't realize how important prepping is. That why you should spend time together doing activities that can help the whole family be better prepared. The trick is to keep it simple so they're having fun while learning skills.
Here are some activities that will help your the rest of your family prepare for disaster without even realizing it. When the SHTF and the lights go out, they'll already some basic survival knowledge and skills so they can contribute.
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1. Camping
Camping is a great starter because in camping, there are tons of exceptions. Your daughter might love camping but only if she has a blow-up mattress.
Your wife might love camping but only if there is a shower and clean bathroom at the campground. Although you probably want to pretend to be Rambo out there, you must understand your family’s needs and make those exceptions.
Camping should include things like fire, tents, hammocks, hikes, cooking over fire, lights, and radios. All these kinds of things are easy to integrate into your trip without creating something an intrusive, drill sergeant style camping trip.
When you camp with your family you will learn so much about how far you can go with the rest of your prepping and survival family activities.
2. Shooting Culture
Shooting culture is a concept. It’s a concept that is much larger than gun culture. People might have mixed feelings about gun culture and kids, but shooting culture is a very different thing. My family shoots guns, but we shoot lots of other things, too.
My 12-year-old son has spent his last two birthdays running and gunning with his family and friends at paintball. We shoot gel blasters at home, bows, and arrows at targets, and we threaten to play archery tag every other month. We shoot steel targets outback with airsoft, and we shoot old coke cans with BB guns.
Shooting things is fun! It’s not just about bullets and rifles. Behind VR headsets and controllers, we also play first person shooters and have a blast with that. I have defined our activities as shooting culture. We like to shoot things together, and it’s a blast!
3. Video Games
There is no denying that my kids’ earliest lessons on the subject of survival came from Minecraft.
Long before you ever want to talk to kids about any kind of doomsday or apocalypse, you can cozy up on the couch in Minecraft survival mode and teach your children about the importance of hunting, gathering fuel for fire, managing important resources, and even things like lighting and perimeter security.
You learn very quickly the value of shelter, gardening for food, and even Murphy’s Law as your pickaxes and swords can break over time, and if you are away from the crafting table then you are just SOL. However, if you live by 2 is 1 and 1 is NONE, then you can survive in Minecraft.
The best part about Minecraft is that it’s multiplayer fun for everyone. If you can find games like this, then you can introduce a ton of prepping and survival concepts to your family. Here are some titles to try out together.
- Ark Survival
- Don’t Starve Together
- Minecraft
- Raft
- Sea of Thieves
- Terraria
4. The World of Ready
If your children would prefer a magical adventure to another world, you should introduce them to The World of Ready. In these books, children are faced with a preparedness or survival problem, and the fastest way to fix it is a trip to The World of Ready to meet Ooda.
In this strange world, the young reader is confronted by a variety of creatures, each with their own ability to help the main character with their emergency preparedness. They will meet the elvish red-haired craftsman Kit who wears a purple dress and a tan apron with many pockets. The children are taken to Kit because she makes the kits.
The World of Ready is for children up to about 8 years old with bright and impactful illustrations. It is a great book to read together with kids or grandkids. Each book also comes with a project at the end that the whole family can participate in.
The World of Ready is Available on Amazon for Kindle or in paperback: The World of Ready: Book 1 Go Bags.
5. Scouts
The Scouts is still a legitimate means of getting out into the world of the wilderness and focusing on a variety of skills that are otherwise lost on the world. The Scouts is also a serious opportunity for your entire family to get involved in the same thing. Meetings are usually weekly, and everyone in your family can be involved.
The camping adventures, service days, and other planned events are also a great opportunity for families to connect and expand their communities. If you can find yourself the right Scouts group, then it can be a huge benefit to your overall preparedness and instill skills in your children that will last a lifetime.
If you can’t find the right scout group then you can always start one!
6. Fishing
Patience is an important part of fishing, but we gotta do some catching to keep the family coming back. Let’s be clear, we are raising the TikTok generation. The attention span is short, so we need some action.
I use a very special rig when it comes to fishing with kids. I like to use size #10 hooks with a bobber and worm or minnows. I rig this all on an ultralight setup so we can make a day of catching everything from 4lbs bass to quarter pound bluegill. Even small fish can be very fun to catch on the right rig.
When the bobbers are going under, kids are having fun. When the kids are having fun, the family is having fun. It is really that simple!
7. Travel
You don’t have to break the bank on airline tickets to travel. It always surprises me that we are in such a rush to get out of the nation on a plane. There is so much in your own state to be explored. Travel doesn’t have to be prepper related in order for it to add value.
There are a couple aspects of travel that are absolutely priceless. One is the packing of bags. Each family member learns about their own needs when packing to go away.
The next thing is understanding a new area and learning how to travel safely in new places. Integrating and acclimating to a new area is very important, too. You don’t wanna look too much like a tourist.
These are all important survival skills.
8. Geocaching
What is more exciting than a treasure hunt? If you are not familiar with geocaching, it is a worldwide community of people hiding and finding small boxes with notebooks in them. These things are hidden all over and with the Geocaching app you can gain access to all of them.
When the weather is nice you have a great opportunity to get out and search for these caches. It’s a great time to talk about navigation, get into the woods, and even talk about other types of caches that would be good to hide.
Conclusion
Prepping and survival are not foreign skill sets to the human race. In fact, they are as much a remembered skill as they are to be learned. We have lived with basic survival skills for a very long time; longer than we have lived with electricity and modern convenience.
As the leader of the family, you need only bring them to the water, per se. Show your family the path and let them know you will walk it with them.
The biggest mistake that we make as preppers who wish to recruit our family is we bet the house on each outing. So, we go camping with a list of to dos and a schedule.
When things start to go wrong, it’s easy to get upset and ruin the trip for everyone. We are leading them to the campsite and then letting the chips fall where they may. Enjoy your life.
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