• Teach your kids about stranger safety.kids image by Marzanna Syncerz from Fotolia.com
  
  Many children are kidnapped or abused on a daily basis. Teaching your kids about stranger safety may decrease their risk of becoming a victim of these crimes. Simple activities can teach your kids about stranger safety without scaring them or making them afraid. A few ideas might help.
  
  

Puppet Show

• Teaching kids about strangers can be difficult. Help them to understand who strangers are by putting on a puppet show. Make sock puppets or popsicle stick puppets. Kids should make puppets that represent themselves. Teachers should make or have on hand one or two puppets that represent strangers. It is important that the stranger puppets are not scary. Children should not be scared of strangers, just wary around them because they don't know them. Have a puppet show where the child is approached by several different strangers in different situations. Have the child role-play what they should do in each situation.
  
  

Memorization and Neighborhood Familiarity

• In case of kidnapping or emergency, children should know their phone number and address. Use the tune of a children's song to help them memorize this important information. Children who learn their address to the tune of "Mary had a little lamb" will be much more likely to remember the information in a stressful situation. It is also important for young children to know the streets around their homes. Take your children on walks or bike rides to help them become more familiar with their neighborhood.
  
  

Singing

• Another great way to help children know what to do when they are faced with a stranger situation is singing. Karen Lewis has written a song that is featured on DLTK's Growing Together. Set to the tune of "Brother John", the song helps children remember what to do in stranger situations. This song, or a similar concept, can be incorporated as you teach children about stranger safety.