Week 16: Learning Handwriting & Safety

Handwriting and Safety aren’t two things that would normally be paired together, but this week’s blog post will teach lessons in both of these things!  You can have your child practice their handwriting by having them write mom and dad’s cell numbers and their home address. A great way to practice both handwriting and safety at the same time!

Every child should know their parents’ cell phone numbers and their home address, and doing a little handwriting practice can be a great way to help it stick.

When my son was in kindergarten, a fellow parent was supposed to pick him up from school for a play date, but the parent forgot. After realizing no adult was there for him, my son went back into his classroom and asked his teacher to call me. She was impressed that she didn’t have to go to the office to look up my cell phone number – he already knew it.

When he was 8, he got separated from me in a store at a local mall. I searched the store from end to end, but I couldn’t find him. I was heading to find the manager to try paging him, all the while trying not to panic, when my cell phone rang.  My son, after searching for ME, had found a trustworthy grownup by going to a restaurant in the mall that we frequent often and where the employees know him, and had asked to use their phone. He successfully found me before I could find him. I love knowing that he has the ability to help himself when I’m not there to help him.

As much as we might wish to keep our kids in a bubble, real life requires us to at least occasionally be separated from our children.  And it’s our job to make sure our kids have the skills they need to help themselves.

There are even more great ideas for helping teach your child their address and phone number in this article from Lasting Thumbprints: