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 to being a ‘prepper skill.’
As you will see, a lot of the ‘normal’ Autumn outings and activities often have an element of preparedness and survivalism to them. It is so easy to turn these times into family prepping activities! Read on!
Hot Cocoa Around the Fire – The leaves are changing and the cooler nights invite you out to gather around a fire to roast marshmallows and have hot cocoa. This is an excellent opportunity to teach children how to stack wood for a good fire and fire safety. Explaining the importance of having at least a ring of rocks in place to help fire safety is normal in this setting and does not come across as being ‘weird’ or being a ‘prepper.’ It is just common sense! You can take it even further and discuss or reinforce the importance of boiling water to make sure it is safe for consumption and cleaning. Use the hot cocoa the family is enjoying and talk about the different ways you could make the cup of cocoa without having a lighter or matches to start the fire. There are so many ways you can turn these kind of discussions into a game. You never know, someone may come up with a new invention!
Hunting – This time of year, thousands of hopeful hunters take to the woods and hunt for their winter meat. The entire trip is a lesson in survival from firearm safety to moving silently, butchering and harvesting the meat to properly storing it for the winter. If you are camping in a tent, discussions about hypothermia and how to build a bed to get you off the ground with tree branches is vital and life saving information. There is nothing ‘extreme’ about any of the lessons that present themselves when on a hunting trip. It is man (and woman!) surviving by taking meat to sustain themselves which brings them far closer to where their food comes and their role in that cycle than grocery shopping ever would. It is a powerful and memorable experience, when you realize how you truly fit into the food chain. I know we sure learned a lot on our first hunting trip.
Corn or Hay Mazes – These fun family activities are a unique opportunity to teach (and learn for yourself) situational awareness and sense of direction. In extreme cases where someone has gotten lost and begins to panic, this is the perfect time to discuss what to do and not to do when you are in an unfamiliar place. Learning how to create landmarks in your head or intentionally marking your path so you feel in control, get your bearings, and move forward is invaluable for people of any age and in this setting, would not be seen as a ‘prepper activity.’
Family prepping activities doesn’t have to be a chore!
Hiking/Camping – Camping season has wound down for most people this time of year but it is the perfect time to go for a hike! Enjoy the splashes of color that erupt through the leaves on trees and see how they are starting to thin out a bit. Learn to read the change of the seasons and different ways Mother Nature shows you when the seasons are changing for your area. Learning or reinforcing direction sense while hiking is another easy to discuss activity while out and about. Increase your skills by learning how to use a compass! Learn how to tell how much light is left by measuring the distance of the sun to the horizon.
If camping, lessons in how to properly chop and stack firewood, start fires and fire safety and banking a fire to last the night are all applicable here. When setting up a tent, learn how to read the ground for water flow so you don’t end up waking up to a lake in your tent! For those in rainy areas like we are, learning how to tie tarps in the trees so they can also be taken down easily is a must! Mastering the basic sailor knots, even if you don’t live in a coastal region is something that will serve you well your entire life. Using these skills, you can put up a tarp and take it down without leaving any rope in the trees. Leave no trace!
Whether you are hiking or camping, having a basic understanding of what to do if you get lost or in trouble is a must. Even if you are hiking on a trail that has homes a mile away, basic survival skills such as fire and shelter building are important to teach and practice.
Harvesting and Preserving Food – The harvest season is ON! Even if you don’t have your own garden, you can still preserve some excellent food and teach others about it, too. By supporting farmer’s markets, you are helping your local community and getting superior produce – usually at lower prices, too! If you are unsure about pressure canning, learn to water-bath can high acid foods! You can make applesauce, jams and jellies, and pie fillings for winter. Learn how to pickle food, too! It uses the same water bath canning method and is so easy, you can learn how to pickle food in a single afternoon! Teaches where food comes from and what goes into the end result. Shows them how it all fits in the cycle from year to year. When something doesn’t harvest well, teaching how important it is to always have something extra set back just in case something doesn’t go as planned.
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 Autumn activities. How ever you get out there to enjoy the season, be safe! Be prepared!
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You have me looking forward to having hot cocoa around a warm fire. I never knew how much fun and learning could take place in a corn maze thank you for sharing.
Thank you for the great comment Karen! You made my day 🙂