Anxiety and Children, Dirt Girl
Videos by Dirt Girl – approx. 20 and 10 minutes.
We are living in a fire zone and have been on alert for months. Tomorrow is a day we need to be prepared for. If you are living in a fire zone too, I have written your kids a special letter.
Hi it’s dirtgirl here.
In dirtgirlworld today, like in so many places around Australia we are doing things to prepare for bushfire.
We have a drought in dirtgirlworld so it’s very very dry and hot here. Is it like that at your place too?
I thought I’d share with you some ideas to keep us safe and calm if we are faced with a bushfire emergency.
Living in the bush, Scrapboy, Costa the garden gnome and I have a very thorough fire plan to protect dirtgirlworld.
Our gutters are cleared, we have raked and removed all the leaves around dirtgirlworld, we have packed away all the garden tools and moved the firewood and compost and mulch away from our houses.
We also have a plan that we will follow to protect ourselves and our animal friends.We know that the most important thing is being safe
When there is an emergency, so much can happen at once and it can be scary. A Bushfire is really noisy, it smells strongly of smoke , the world feels very very hot and sometimes it can get very dark. Often there are sparks and embers.
Not being near a bushfire is the best idea but sometimes we are surprised by bushfire.
If that happens here’s some of my top tips for what to do in a bushfire emergency.
When it is an emergency… pop on your emergency goggles! and switch them on! They aren’t real goggles …they are pretend …but they help me focus on what to do to stay safe.
Remember who the emergency captain is….that’s the person in your family who is giving the emergency instructions . Sometimes it is more than one person. Look at them. Listen to them and act as calmly and as quickly as you can.
We have chosen scrapboy as our fire captain this time. He knows our fire plan and I trust him.
It’s good to be prepared.
Fill your water bottle with water.
Choose some snacks and fruit
pick some fun stuff to play with later
your fav teddy or small toy
some clean undies and pjs and some clothes for tomorrow
and a card with your contact details on it.
Pop them all in a back pack
Have a practice wearing it and crawling down low …or walking to the front of the house ….or running with it on.
Your emergency goggles give you an energy boost to carry your backpack on your own.
If you have to evacuate your house…evacuate is an emergency word for quickly leaving your house or school….it’s time to stay calm and follow instructions.
It’s all about staying safe.
To keep calm, I talk to myself …I say
‘I can cope, we’ve got a plan, we know what to do, it’s just one step at a time’.
And I keep saying that to myself , it helps me to be calm to know we have a plan…I can say it as many times as I like.
However, I make sure I stop talking to myself to listen to my family fire captain and follow instructions.
And the other thing I do is that I slow myself down…I try and take slow breathes.
Want to give it a try?
if we have to evacuate, I make sure I have my own back pack, and we follow our plan to get to safety.
Being safe is the most important thing.
Our things can be replaced, we can get new things, being safe is what we need to remember.
I hope that none of you have to use any of these top tips but I am happier knowing we have had this chat.
Scrapboy, Costa the garden gnome and I, are sending you all our love as well as well as our top tips.
Be safe!
love from dirtgirl
PS.:
I’ve also filmed two videos today for families today – links above.