Home Alone Safety › The course › Badge 1, Street Smarts › Your route, mapped
Your route, mapped
Badge 1 of 7 · Street Smarts
Lesson 2 of 4 · Step 2 of 43 in the course
Watch, then decide. The next step only opens when you have it right.
Step 1 of 3
Step 1 of 3
A route you agreed is a route somebody can find you on
- Everything in the last lesson depends on one thing: you and your parents agreeing what your route actually is, before you need it.
- Fill it in, then walk it once with a parent.
- Not because you do not know the way — because walking it together is when you both notice what you would each have missed.
Watch, then answer this
Why walk a route you already know?
Step 2 of 3
Safe places, and places you do not go
- Safe places: a store that is always open, a friend’s house, a fire station, a library.
- Somewhere you could walk into and ask for help without explaining yourself first.
- Places to avoid: the alley, the empty lot, the path behind the stores.
- Name them out loud, so avoiding them is a decision you already made rather than one you make on the day.
Watch, then answer this
What makes somewhere a safe place?
Step 3 of 3
When the route changes
- Bad weather, a road closed, a friend asking you to come with them.
- The answer is always the same: message first, wait for a reply.
- Not message and go. Message, and wait.
Watch, then answer this
Your friend wants you to walk a different way. You message your mom. What now?
Watch what happens
Then go back and pick again.
That is this lesson.
You watched it, you made the call yourself, and you got it right. That is the whole lesson — nothing here was read to pass.
Map out your route
This is the SOS 4 Kids Map Out Your Route worksheet, filled in on screen. Complete it, press the button, and print what comes out. Share it with your family and follow it every time.
My route home — SOS 4 Kids
Print this and put it somewhere both of you can see it. Walk it together once before it counts.
Now do it
Off the screen, before you leave this page
Watching is not the same as being able to do it. Stand up and work through these. Nothing here is marked and nothing is sent anywhere — the ticks are yours.
Accessibility
Read what happens in each clip instead
Step 1 — Your route. The walk home, mapped as a route rather than a habit.
Step 2 — Two kinds of place. A walk along a suburban street picking out the safe places one by one: a shop with its lights on, a friend’s front door, a library. Then, without drama, the two places the route avoids — an alley mouth and an empty lot — passed by on the far sidewalk.
Step 3 — Message first, wait for a reply. Rain starts. A friend gestures toward a different street. The child stops, takes out a phone, sends a message and waits — and only moves once a reply comes back. The waiting is the shot.
Caption tracks are still to be added to the films on this page. They ship as sidecar tracks, never burned into the picture.