Ready Kids › Home Alone Ready › Badge 2 › Lesson 2.1

Grades 4–5 · Home Alone Ready · Badge 2

Nobody comes in

Answer the front door from behind it, without opening it, with the words ready.

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Step 1 of 9

1Watch

The knock

Film

The knock

A kid on the sofa with a bowl of cereal. A knock. The film follows him down the hall and stops with his hand an inch from the chain.

18 seconds

He has not decided anything yet. Neither have you.

2The idea

The rule before the judgement calls

At your age the door rule is flat, and that is a relief, not an insult. You do not have to work out who is fine. The door stays shut. You can talk through it. You never open it.

Later there will be rules with judgement in them. This one has none. Not the neighbour, not the delivery, not someone who says your mum sent them. If the answer was ever yes, you would have to judge every visitor. The rule takes that job off you.

3The idea

Uniforms and parcels

A uniform is a costume anybody can buy. A clipboard costs two dollars. A lanyard costs less. None of it is proof of anything, and you do not have to check, because you are not opening the door either way.

A parcel can be left on the step. That is what steps are for. If it needs a signature, it goes back and comes another day, and that is fine. No parcel is worth an open door.

4Say it

The words, through the door

Say it through a closed door, normal voice, not sorry

“I can't come to the door right now. You can leave it on the step.”

It does not say you are alone. It does not say you are not. It just closes the conversation.

5The idea

Amara and the delivery

Knock. Amara goes to the door and does not touch the chain. I can’t come to the door right now, you can leave it on the step. The driver says it needs a signature. Then it’ll have to come back another day. He leaves it on the step anyway. Fine.

She messages her mum: Delivery came, it’s on the step. Feeling Dial: Fine. Back to the cereal. The whole thing took thirty seconds and the door never moved. That is what a good afternoon at the door looks like.

6Decide

A man in a uniform says he is here to check the gas meter and it will take two minutes.

That one. The meter can wait, and if it cannot, the gas company can ring your parent. Notice you did not have to decide whether he was real. The rule answered before you had to.

A badge you cannot check is still a costume. Looking at it feels careful, but it ends in an open door, and that is the thing the rule exists to stop. You do not need to know if he is real, because the answer is the same either way.

Pick one to carry on.

7Try it

Four visitors

Interactive

Four at the door

Four visitors, one at a time: a courier, a neighbour, someone saying a car is blocked in, a kid from school. For each, set the Feeling Dial and choose what you say. The door stays shut in every ending.

Notice the dial reads Fine on some of them. The answer is still the same. The rule is not about how you feel.

8Find them

Which of these can you do from behind a closed door?

Tap the ones that count.

Find all 4.

9Do it

Before you leave this page

Have a parent go outside and knock. Answer your own front door without opening it, with the words. Twice.

Tick it when you have done it.

Lesson done.

The door stays shut. You can talk through it. You never open it.

Next lesson: The one who keeps knocking

Badge 2 · The Door and the Phone

2.1Nobody comes in 2.2The one who keeps knocking 2.3The phone 2.4People you know ★Badge Challenge

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