Ready Kids › Home Alone Ready › Badge 6 › Lesson 6.1
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Is this actually an emergency?
Sort a household problem into handle it, message a parent, or call 911.
1Watch
The drip
The drip
A kid opens the cupboard under the sink for a bin bag and finds water dripping from a pipe into a spreading puddle. The film ends on his face.
18 secondsSomething is wrong. The question is not what to do yet. It is how big this is.
2The idea
Most things are not
Most things that go wrong when you are home alone are not emergencies. A dripping tap, a blown bulb, a smashed glass, the wifi going down. Knowing that is the skill. Panicking at a blown fuse is worse than the fuse.
Three buckets: handle it, message a parent, call 911. Every problem goes in one of them. The first two buckets hold nearly everything. The third one is for a short list you already know most of.
3The idea
How to tell which bucket
Handle it: nobody is hurt, nothing is getting worse, you know what to do. Sweep up the glass.
Message a parent: not getting worse fast, but beyond you, or theirs to know. Water under the sink. Power off. The dog being sick.
Call 911: someone badly hurt, fire or smoke, a smell of gas, someone trying to get in.
The question for the middle bucket: Is anyone hurt, and is it getting worse? No and no means message, not call. Yes to either means call. Not sure counts as yes.
4The idea
Ella, and the puddle under the sink
Anyone hurt? No. Getting worse? Slowly. Bucket two. She turns off the little tap on the pipe, puts a towel down, and messages: Leak under the kitchen sink, tap’s off, towel down. Mum: great, leave it, back at five.
Same afternoon, a glass smashes: bucket one, shoes on, sweep. A smell of gas would be bucket three, and bucket three does not stop to message first. The buckets go in order of who needs to know first. For 911 that is them, before your parent.
5Try it
The sorter
Ten into three
Ten situations, one at a time. Drag each into Handle it, Message, or Call 911. After each drop, the page asks the two questions back at you: anyone hurt? getting worse?
You will put more in the middle bucket than you expect. That is correct.
6Decide
The power goes off. All of it. It is half past four and getting dark.
Pick one to carry on.
7Say it
The two questions for the middle bucket
Say them as questions, one after the other
“Anyone hurt? Is it getting worse?”
No and no is a message. Either yes is a call. You will ask them about ten times a year.
8Find them
Which of these are call 911, straight away?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
9Do it
Before you leave this page
Tell a parent which bucket three real things in your house go in: a blown bulb, water on the bathroom floor, and one they pick. Say the two questions out loud for each.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Three buckets: handle it, message a parent, call 911. Most things are the first two.
Next lesson: Power, water, locked out