Prepping With Kids For Off-Grid Survival

Living off the grid is a challenge, especially if you’re not set up with alternate sources of power. It’s a different lifestyle and one that kids may find difficult. It may very well become a necessity though, and if SHTF, your kids need to know how to survive without all of the modern niceties. For that matter, prepping with kids for off-grid survival is a great way to teach them independence and respect for the Earth that so many kids today are lacking.

If SHTF, the entire family needs to be able to work together to get things done so it’s imperative that you prep your kids for off-grid survival. Here are a few tips to help you get started.

Start Young if You Can

First, your kids need to be involved from an early age. Teach them the ideals and values that accompany living off the grid. Whether you’re living in the country and pursuing a lifestyle completely independent of external resources or you’re living a sustainable lifestyle in the city where you can’t really go off the grid, involve your kids.

Start Small

Your kids can’t be expected to learn how your solar panels work or how to make bio-diesel when they’re little but they can certainly learn how to take care of the chickens, gather eggs and perform other small but necessary tasks. Starting small when they’re young has several advantages.

First, it builds self-esteem and gives them a stake in your lifestyle. They have a role to play and are essential to your family. Also, they’re learning from the ground up how to live off the grid, or sustainably. Baby steps lead to competence in many areas. Finally, it teaches them the value of the lifestyle and keeps them close to the land. They’ll already be in survival mode and it will be totally natural to them.

Let Them Tag Along and Talk to Them

If you have to fix the solar panel or do some work in the garden, let the kids tag along as long as it’s safe. There’s no reason that you can’t be explaining how things work at a level that your child can understand long before they’re actually capable of doing the work. Then when they ARE able to really help, they’ll have a good understanding of the process. Also, this builds self-esteem because you’re taking the time to show them that you believe in them.

When you go out to buy supplies for the farm or feed for the animals, take them with you. Show them the different types of supplies and feeds and explain why you’ve chosen to use the ones that you do.

Make no part of your lifestyle a secret that’s “too complicated for them right now” because kids are sponges. Just when you think they’re not listening to a word you’re saying, they’re actually taking it ALL in. Use that to your advantage and respect them as intelligent people who are willing to learn.

Have “No Power” Days

Even if you have solar panels and are completely off the grid, it’s still a good idea to teach your kids how to live without access to power. Start in the morning and perform all of your chores and household stuff without any power. Cook meals, do dishes and perform hygiene without the convenience of hitting the light switch. You can make this a fun, regular thing by incorporating family games and special foods into the mix.

For instance, if you do this once per month, plan dinner around their favorite barbeque foods or campfire desserts. Have S’mores and sing songs. Camping trips are great for this, too. There’s no reason why living without power should be drudgery; we happily did it for centuries before the light bulb was invented.

Video first seen on An American Homestead

Teach Your Kids about the Local Ecology

Knowing what plants are edible versus which ones are poisonous may very well save their lives one day. Go for walks, go camping, do whatever you enjoy doing just to get out of the house and explore the world around you. Also, teach them about bugs, snakes and local dangerous animals so that they’re aware of what they need to be wary of should they ever find themselves lost outside. Knowledge is power!

Let Them Experiment

We all know that the best way to learn is by doing. If you have the space, give your kids their own little plot of garden space, their own animal, or their own part of the farm that is their responsibility. Start by letting them work alongside you, then let them experiment as they get older and have a better grasp of what they are doing. Who knows – they may end up finding better methods than the ones that you’re currently using!

Use Life as a Teaching Experience

Whether you homeschool or your kids attend public schools, they still need to learn basic skills such as math, reading and economics and they also need to learn the value of money and how to run the household. Teach them all of this by letting them help with ordering supplies and balancing the house budgets. Build miniature windmills and solar devices to help them understand chemistry and engineering.

Living off the grid offers a new learning experience about every 5 seconds so take advantage of that. Instead of letting them learn to count candy pieces on a video game, let them learn by counting how many eggs you gather, or how many edible plants you pass on the way to the barn. Learning can be fun and when they’re applying it to real-life situations, it will stick better, too.

Teach Them the Value of Secrecy

This only applies if you’ve decided to keep your prepping plans a secret. If you don’t want their friends and neighbors to know about your efforts, make sure that you tell them. Since stockpiling and living off the grid are natural to them, they may not realize that not everybody is doing it, especially when they’re small.

Just tell them that it’s very important that nobody knows where the supplies are or that there even ARE supplies and that it’s a matter of maybe not having enough food in the future.

Prepping with kids for off-grid survival can be a natural, easy part of the way that you raise them if that’s the lifestyle that you’re dedicating yourself to. Just remember that they’re generally ready to learn whatever you want to teach them and use that to your advantage.

Make sure that they understand WHY you’re teaching them the skills just as solidly as the understand the skills themselves. That way, the value of the lifestyle is imparted to the them as well. Happy prepping!

This article has been written by Theresa Crouse for Survivopedia.

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