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Teaching outdoor survival skills to kids is something a lot of us do and grew up doing with our families. However, some never had anyone teaching them these skills. So, they get into survival skills later on in life.
The good thing is, it’s not too late to be prepared and to teach your kids about survival skills. Let’s face it, the world is becoming crazier and crazier and the more they learn the better they will be on their own later on in life.
You should be teaching your children about these preparedness skills, learning wilderness skills, and most important preparing their hearts for God. If anything ever happens to your kids, you would want to be able to see them again and if you are ever separated in some type of bugout event, at least you can ensure that your family will have the knowledge to keep safe.
In this post, we will cover some ideas for you and some of the most important outdoor survival skills for kids that you should be teaching them.
Wilderness Skills To Teach Your Kids
Basic Cooking Skills
A lot of us learned how to cook on an open campfire in the backyard. If you do not have one of these in your area or live in a city where it is not a possibility, you can get a cook stove to use for this or a wood stove even.
Due to the uncertain times we live in, it’s hard to say where the world is heading.
One thing is for sure, the power will eventually go out, and learning how to cook food is one of the most essential skills that you can teach your kids for a survival situation.
Food Prepping
Even small kids are able to learn this kind of stuff. Start out small, teach them what you need to store, and have them do it, or at least help you. To really learn a new skill, watching it be done is good but getting the hands-on experience is even better.
Most importantly, the key thing to take away here for the kids is how to be safe when preparing food. Teach them the important essentials of prepping food and water and these are important outdoor survival skills for kids that they can use.
Have them cut up vegetables, and meat, prepare dishes, how to store food outdoors, and in the wilderness, and keep it safe from predators.
Finding Wood For Fires
What to look for when scouting for wood to build a fire out in the wilderness. Teaching them how to look for downed trees, logs, kindling, fire-starting material, and dry wood during the winter season.
Since chopping down trees and burning fresh wood is really hard to keep burning, you will want to show them what to look for. How to spot bark for burning material.
Building A Fire
The dangers of a kid getting a lighter and playing around with it are nothing to make light of. But if you ask most kids “how do you start a fire without a lighter?”, they think by rubbing sticks together. Sure, they are not wrong but the amount of effort it takes to start a primitive fire is just tough if you don’t have the right materials.
Show them how to make a fire with a lighter, and matches, and hey, why not make a good bow drill, show them the materials you need to gather in the wild to create a fire the good old way.
Building A Shelter
In a wilderness situation building, a shelter is highly important and you should get your kids out into the woods and start getting them to make a shelter.
A lean-to, or just a quick shelter, out of tarp, a teepee, by using downed trees out there, and by using branches. Actually, this was the first style of shelter I taught myself how to build when I was little.
Use what you have and just try to make something that would help to keep you out of the elements. It’s actually a fun little project! Be sure to warn them amount widow makers! Never build a shelter too close to dead trees.
Sowing
Sowing is an important skill. Forget a machine, showing them the basic hand-sowing skills if they ever had to make something or sow something together then it’s a great skill to learn.
Forging For Food
Teaching them how to find food in the wild is another important survival skill to learn. A great idea is to pick up a book with all the pictures especially if you are able to get a book dedicated to your geological location.
In the different seasons, there will be different edibles you can eat, and for the most part will be safe for kids to learn, however, it’s also a good idea to drill it into their heads that some edibles are deadly, and if you do not 100% know something is safe to eat then you shouldn’t.
Hunting And Fishing
As early as I can remember I was on hunting and fishing trips with family. I was around 8 when I got my first B.B. gun and started learning to shoot with that. After a while, I was quite good. I used to bring my little B.B. gun on deer hunts as if I was a part of it.
Fishing was always something I was good at. Started doing it as a child and it’s something I still love doing today.
Showing the skills like digging up worms, and knots, (that is a blog post on its own), how to put a worm on a hook, how to detect fish bites, how to pull up on the rod when detecting a bite to lowering the rod to a 45-degree angle to reel in the fish.
Cleaning the fish or birds is something you should have your kids do, not only do you learn how to properly clean these animals, you are learning the anatomy of the animals as well.
Tip: A good idea for hunting if they are still too young, is to get them a slingshot or airsoft gun and set up targets around your house so they can practice aiming. Even a 5-year-old and shoot a nerf gun and aim semi-decent enough.
Gardening
Not really an outdoor survival skill, but it could be if you had seeds and were in a real SHTF situation. If your kids had nothing but could keep themselves alive by what you have taught them if they know how to grow food from the garden at least by having something to grow they would be able to.
Map Reading
How to read maps. I find most people do not know how to read a map, alongside a compass which are two things that are very important skills to learn even as an adult.
If you go out camping or then that is going to be a fun way to teach them the skills of how to use a map and compass.
Near a logging road or lake or something, it’s a good idea how to teach them how to get into the wilderness and out, how to stay on track so you are not wandering around lost in circles.
Reading a compass for survival is highly important and there are a lot of good videos that teach this on YouTube if you wanted to refresh your knowledge to teach to your children.
Check out some of the best compasses for survival
Conclusion
Overall these are some great outdoor survival skills for kids that you can teach them and do together with your family. Times are changing, it’s time to prepare, prep, and teach the skills of your loved one that can keep them safe in these uncertain times.
