Each season offers different opportunities to practice and master certain survival skills. Cleverly disguised as simple and fun family time, these activities play a secondary role that most people never really think about or equate them to being a ‘prepper skill.’ As you will see, almost all of the normal wintertime outings have an element of preparedness and survivalism to them. Read on!
Snowball fights, sledding, making snow forts and ice tunnels are just a few of the fun activities that many families enjoy when the weather turns cold and rain turns into flurries of powdery snow. The revered “Snow Day” that many school age children hope and pray for every year is the perfect opportunity to turn an inconvenient situation into a fun day of learning activities. The best part? The kids don’t know they are learning survival skills – they’re just playing! You, however, know that these are prepping activities for winter survival.
Ice Fishing – If you are lucky enough to live in an area that gets cold enough to freeze fish bearing lakes, this tradition is a great way to teach family members not only about the difference in catching a fish in winter, it also provides the perfect setting for explaining the dangers of walking on the ice. They need to learn how to ‘read’ the ice to tell if it is safe or not. Other safety lessons can include what to do if you fall through, how to disperse your weight to not fall through, and the importance of not getting exposed skin stuck to it!
Setting Traps – This is more for the rural dweller than any urbanite. Trap setting for food and fur is still practiced in many parts of the world. Learning how and why a trap works, how to set them, and how to harvest the fur/meat are all incredibly valuable skills to have should you ever find yourself in the woods and starving. Be sure to teach the proper way to field dress and butcher animals!
Hunting for Small Game – Along the same lines as ice fishing and setting traps, hunting for small game such as winter birds, rabbits, and squirrels is not for everyone. The lessons that these activities will teach to the family is what makes it worth it, other than some fresh meat!
Cold Temperature Risks – This is a broad category. It covers everything from beginning hypothermia to full on frost bite. Shelter making in a snow berm, building a fire to keep warm, and ways to signal for help are vital skills that can be taught while on a nice winter day hike. Get in the snow and play with your kids! Show them how to make a snow shelter just before a good snowball fight! The kids will just think of the shelter as a ‘fort’ to play in as a base of operations.
Fire Starting in Cold Weather – Starting a fire in the middle of summer is considerably easy. Starting one in the winter with cold fingers, wet wood, and tinder presents a much larger challenge. Head outside to have a cup of cocoa with the family! The catch is they have to help get the fire going but cannot use any flame accelerant such as fuel or oil. Chances are pretty good that you will not have those available to you in a SHTF situation and it is important that you understand and practice starting a fire.
Improve Aim with Squirt Guns – This is one of my personal favorite things to do. We live on an island and many of the roads were blasted out of the rock. On one side, the rock face still shows and when it rains for literal weeks at a time, the water pours off the side into the ditch. In the winter, that water freezes and creates “frozen waterfalls” to enjoy while you are driving down the road. One of the things that some families do here is to fill squirt guns (usually super soakers) with colored water. Some use food dye but I have heard others who use Kool-Aid juice mixes (that you add sugar to) to get more vibrant colors. Take aim and let it fly! Give your kids challenges such as going from a relaxed state to aiming and firing in one fluid motion. You are creating muscle memory and improving aiming skills (not to mention teaching them about how to handle firearms in a safe and fun way). Icicles are another great option for this very fun and useful activity.
As the water freezes back up, it makes for a wonderful tye dye effect for people to enjoy as they travel to and from work.
Starting Sprouts – Somewhere in late January, many people begin planting their seeds so the sprouts are ready to be transplanted into the garden for the next growing season. Explaining how important it is to understand the cycles of each plant will help children and other family members get more in touch with the growing cycle as a whole and realize that it is not just Spring and Summer that gardening happens.
Judging How Much Daylight is Left – It is important to know how to tell how much daylight you have left, especially if you have no watch or cell phone. Simply find the sunshine and use one hand to block it (so you can see). Then position your other hand under it with fingers pointing side to side. Each finger you count down to the horizon line is roughly 15 minutes’ worth of daylight left. Having a hard time picturing it? Here is another article with a graphic that will help you visualize the method.
Year Round Activities. There are some skills that are so valuable that they apply to every season. Some of those include:
- Identifying edible and medicinal plants
- Foraging
- Watching the land change with the season – learning to read the season changes
- Finding and purifying water
- Starting a fire in less than ideal conditions
- Making shelters
- What to do if you get lost
As you can see, it is pretty easy to incorporate little ‘lessons’ into your winter activities. How ever you get out there to enjoy the season, be safe! Be prepared!
Want some ideas for other seasons? Check out the ones for Summer and Autumn!
So many of these were taught to me as a child. I let them flow into memory. Now I am teaching them to parents so they can teach them to their kids. Parents who were never taught, cannot teach their child(ren) what they never learned. Great article. I look forward to checking other articles on your site.