Ready Kids › Home Alone Ready › Badge 7 › Lesson 7.4
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The order
Apply the Emergency Order to any scene: Am I safe, Call, Do what they say, Write it down.
1Watch
Three seconds after
Three seconds after
A kid in a kitchen doorway. On the floor, a younger brother beside a tipped-over chair, a broken glass around him. The kid takes one step and the film stops.
15 secondsEverything in him wants to run to his brother. There is one thing to do before that, and it takes a second.
2The idea
The Emergency Order
Am I safe? Then Call. Then Do what they say. Then Write it down. Four steps, every time, in that order.
Am I safe? comes first, always, and it is not selfish. You are no use to anyone hurt. Is there smoke, water and electricity, glass, a smell, somebody who should not be there? Deal with that first, even if dealing with it means stepping outside. Your safety first, and then you are the person who can help.
3The idea
Call, then do what they say
Call: 911 for the big three, someone badly hurt, fire or smoke, someone trying to get in. A parent for the rest. From somewhere safe. Do what they say: the operator, then the parent. Not what a video said, not what you would guess.
They can see the whole picture. You can see the floor. Doing what they say is not a smaller job than knowing what to do. It is the job.
4The idea
Write it down
Afterwards, when it is over and your hands have stopped: what happened, when, what you did. Four lines. Adults will ask, doctors will ask, and by tomorrow you will not remember whether it was ten past four or half past.
Jonah, brother off the chair, arm at a wrong angle. Am I safe: glass, so shoes on. Call: 911, address first. Do what they say: don’t move him, unlock the door. That night: 4:15, Sam fell off the chair, arm bent wrong. Called 911 at 4:16. Said don’t move him. Ambulance 4:28. Writing it down is also where it stops living in your head.
5Try it
The order, applied to three scenes
Four steps, three scenes
Three scenes: a fall with glass, a burn at the stove, a smell in the hall. For each, drag the four steps into order and fill in what each step actually is for that scene.
The first step is different in every scene. The other three are nearly the same. That is the point of having an order.
6Decide
Your sister has fallen off the counter. There is broken glass across the whole floor and you are in socks.
Pick one to carry on.
7Say it
The four steps
Say it like a list you already know
“Am I safe? Call. Do what they say. Write it down.”
Nine words. They are the whole of this badge in one breath.
8Find them
Which of these are part of Am I safe?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
9Do it
Before you leave this page
Write four lines about something that happened today, in that shape: the time, what happened, who you told, what you did. It does not need to be an emergency.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Am I safe? Call. Do what they say. Write it down. In that order, every time.
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