Ready Kids › Home Alone Ready › Badge 6 › Lesson 6.2
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Power, water, locked out
Handle a power cut, a water leak, and being locked out without waiting on the step.
1Look
Three afternoons
Three afternoons
Three panels: a dark kitchen with a torch beam across it, water pooling round the base of a washing machine, and a kid on a doorstep with a school bag.
The three most likely things to go wrong. None of them is a 911. All of them have a first move.
2The idea
Power
The lights go. First: torch, not candles. A candle is a small fire in a house where you are the only one to notice it. Know where the torch lives; the phone light is fine for finding it. Second: the fridge stays shut. It holds cold for hours if you leave the door alone.
Third: message. Power’s off, I’ve got the torch. Then sit somewhere you can see the front door and wait. Do not touch the fuse box unless a parent is talking you through it on the phone. Torch, fridge shut, message. Then sit down.
3The idea
Water
A leak: stop it if you can reach the tap. Under the sink there are usually small taps on the pipes; turn them clockwise. A washing machine has a tap behind it; turn it off if you can reach without moving the machine. Towels down. Then message.
If the water is near anything electrical, a socket, an extension lead on the floor, do not touch the water and do not touch the socket. Get away from it and message, or call if there is a lot. Stop it if you can reach the tap, then message. Never water and electricity together.
4The idea
Locked out
Never wait on the step. The step says: this kid cannot get in and nobody is home. Go to the agreed backup, the neighbour, the shop, the friend’s house, and message from there.
Malik’s key snaps in the lock. He does not sit down. He walks to the Patels’, two doors along. Mrs Patel makes toast. He messages: Locked out, at the Patels’. Dad is home in forty minutes. Locked out is a problem you solve from somewhere with an adult in it.
5Try it
Three branching scenes
Power, water, locked out
Three short scenes. In each you choose the first move, then the second. A wrong first move plays out for a few seconds before the scene rewinds to the choice.
The candle branch is the one to try on purpose. Watch where it goes.
6Decide
The lights go off. Where is your light?
Pick one to carry on.
7Say it
The water rule
Say it like a checklist
“Tap off. Towel down. Message.”
Three steps, in that order. If the tap is behind something you cannot move, skip to the towel.
8Find them
Which of these do you do in a power cut?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
9Do it
Before you leave this page
Find your torch and check it works. Then, with a parent, find the small taps under the kitchen sink and the tap behind the washing machine. Touch each one.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Torch, not candles. Tap off, then message. Locked out: go to the backup.
Next lesson: Smells and sounds you cannot place