How to Prepare for Natural Disasters with Kids (and how to cope after one)

It’s important to teach children how to prepare for natural disasters, but we want to do so without scaring them. Floods, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes are natural disasters that our children will know through the news if not through personal experience. Life is easier when we are prepared, so I’ve found a free disaster preparedness curriculum for 1st through 12th grades, and free emergency kit checklists for the whole family.

Ivan, Katrina  and Isaac are names the children in our family know well.  Those names – and the hurricanes they represent – gave our children firsthand experience with FEMA (America’s Federal Emergency Management Agency) and natural disasters. The National Guard has passed out MREs to us, and we were blessed by Tennessee power workers who handed out Snickers to our kids as they assessed the damage in our neighborhood.

One of our sons was only 4 years old when Hurricane Ivan passed right over our home.  For weeks after – many weeks – he was concerned whenever he’d hear wind blow. “Is another hurricane here?” he’d ask. I began searching for online disaster preparedness learning games and disaster preparedness curriculum and lesson plans. I knew other parents were asked the same questions.

It’s likely that your children have also been affected by a natural disaster.   All children have certainly heard of a natural disaster. FEMA has created a site dedicated to educating children about disaster with full lesson plans for grades 1-12, learning games, and family emergency kid checklists.

Learn how to prepare for natural disasters:

Make a family plan

Print an Emergency Kit checklist for parents and one for kids

Play Disaster Preparedness Online Games

Full Emergency Preparedness Curriculum for grades 1-2, grades 3-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12. Each set of curriculum is available as a pdf document (nothing required to download), and contains about 5 lesson plans over 30+ pages.

Visit FEMA’s free disaster preparedness lessons for kids for more.

Here’s another resource for school age children, from Utah: A Disaster Preparedness Activity Book

Learn how to cope after a natural disaster:

Here’s some help for parents who need to explain a natural disaster to their children.

Further learning:

College students can take these free FEMA Emergency Courses for college credit.

Stay safe out there!