Product Review: What Does It Mean To Be Safe? {Hardcover} (Pre-K+)
Rana DiOrio’s Newest Addition to her Award-winning Series that Explores Physical, Emotional, Social and Cyber Safety
I was a child with a lot of fear. I won’t get into the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ I was that way (another blog perhaps), but that was me. I distinctly remember writing a letter for school (an assignment by an English teacher) to myself that she was going to hold and mail to us in a self stamped envelope in our current address when we graduated from high school about what we thought we were going to ‘be’. My parents did get that letter in the mail a week after I graduated and when I read it I admit I was a little shocked at how I did exactly what I said I was going to do. It was in that letter I said I was tired of being shy and tired of being afraid. I was going to change. I wanted to do a 180 and go from being a student who people copied their homework assignments from to being the one who played guitar in large crowds and had lots of friends. And….I did. I went from an introvert to an extrovert, by choice, almost overnight. I did not find a balance (and now lean towards being an introvert) until well after college. I did not really understand in middle or high school that not all ‘friends’ were ‘friends’ and that not everyone meant what they said or did things that I just assumed were ‘right’. Life wasn’t all fun and games just because you had lots of people surrounding you. In fact, sometimes I felt even lonelier than when I only had just one great ‘nerd’ friend. I learned a lot about myself and who I wanted to get close to and trust was something I had to learn (very painfully, I might add) up until my beginning twenties about who is safe and who is not. That’s when I realized I did care more about myself and my safety (physically and mentally) than having lots of people in my life. There is a balance to strike and it is hard to find it when you do not have the right tools or understand your own self-worth which I personally think is a huge key when teaching kids about safety. I hope it won’t take my daughter the difficult lessons and people I lost along the way to learn these things. Books like What Does It Mean to Be Safe? are perfect examples of positive parenting books to read to our children starting at a young age so that they understand that their own physical being belongs to themselves and they need (and we want them) to protect it.
What Does It Mean To Be Safe? gives children guidelines on how they can protect themselves and how important it is to be secure in your surroundings. While I can relate to the physical, emotional and social aspects of threatening environments, I am always interested in knowing more about cyber safety. Since the ‘interwebs’ was not in full swing when I was in school, I have to learn the difficulties on how important it is to protect a child online from people who are not trustworthy. It is very important to have those conversations with your children about unhealthy behavior and what it means to be safe in all environments. Being safe does not just mean asking an adult for help when needed (although there is a huge element to that), it is also giving the child the tools to rely on their own inner voices and know what to do when an adult is not around to help. Children have to learn to be strong enough and understand that they play the biggest part in their own safety. If a friend is doing something unsafe, you want to know that your child would not just follow along like sheep, but to stand up and say, ‘No! That is not me!’ and to seek help from an adult if that is warranted. We, as parents, are responsible for teaching our kids these tools and that their body is a temple and no one should violate them. One day, they won’t be kids and they will be making and doing decisions on their own. If we help them define what it means to be safe now and stay vigilant, we will have to trust that this will be the path they choose and that we have done our part in teaching them well.
Being Safe Lesson Plans! Check out this page and download the lesson plans for FREE (you have to sign up to get the information) here!
What Does It Mean To Be Safe? {Hardcover} (Pre-K+)
List Price: $16.95 (Kindle Edition is just $2.99)
Momma's Bacon 