Ready Kids › Home Alone Ready › Badge 3 › Lesson 3.2
All courses›Home Alone Ready›Badge 3
Locked means locked
Do a lock check of front, back and windows, and use the chain or bolt every time.
1Look
The back of the house
The back of the house
A kitchen seen from the hall: the back door with the key hanging beside it, and a small window over the sink open a few inches.
The front door is locked. Now look at the rest of the picture.
2The idea
The big rule and the small habits
The rule is locked means locked. It is held up by small habits: the front door behind you; the back door, which nobody checks; the window somebody opened this morning to let the toast smoke out. A house is only as locked as its least-locked opening.
The chain or the bolt is not decoration. It is what lets you talk through a door that cannot be pushed open. Put it on when you come in, every time, so it is already on when it matters.
3The idea
The check, in order
1. Front door: locked, chain on.
2. Back door, patio door, side door, the door from the garage: locked.
3. Ground-floor windows: shut and latched. The upstairs one over the flat roof counts too.
It takes ninety seconds. Do it before the snack, not after, because after the snack you are on the sofa and the sofa wins. The check is part of Lock, the first step of the routine, not a separate job.
4The idea
Ben's check, on a Tuesday
Front door: locked, chain on. Kitchen: back door unlocked. His dad went out to the bins that morning and did not lock it behind him. Ben locks it. Bathroom window open a crack. He shuts it. Ninety seconds.
He messages his mum: Back door was unlocked. She says thanks, and now the family knows about the bins habit. Telling a parent what you found is how the house gets more locked over time. The check is not just for today.
5Try it
The walkthrough
Tap everything that should be shut
A house, room by room, from the front door round to the back. Tap every door and window that should be locked or latched. The ones you miss glow at the end.
Most kids miss the same two: the door from the garage, and the upstairs window over the porch roof.
6Decide
You have locked the front door. The bathroom window upstairs is open, over the flat roof. It is small.
Pick one to carry on.
7Say it
The check, as a checklist
Say it like a list you are ticking off
“Front. Back. Windows. Chain.”
Four words on the way to the fridge. By next week you will not hear yourself say it.
8Find them
Which of these count as an opening to check?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
9Do it
Before you leave this page
Do a lock check of your own home right now: front, back, every ground-floor window. Tell a parent what you found, even if it was nothing.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Front door, back door, and the window you opened this morning. Chain on.
Next lesson: What you are allowed to doBadge 3 · The First Twenty Minutes
3.1The routine3.2Locked means locked3.3What you are allowed to do★Badge Challenge