Safety Village

I heard about Safety Village through the network of Relief Society moms at church. Liesel was just old enough and it seemed like a great idea, not to mention the price for the two weeks was reasonable. Sure it was crazy running from swim lessons to yet another summer activity, but Brent and I felt it was valuable. Boy was it ever! Liesel started teaching Ireland little songs about safety and she usurped Brent as the most obnoxious backseat driver in the family.

"Mom, there's a red light up ahead so you'd better stop. Oh, it turned green so now you can go but not until the car in front does or we'll crash. Mom? Did you hear me? WE'LL CRASH!!!"

On our recent stay at a Hampton Inn, Brent and the girls went to the hot tub.  Out of the blue, Liesel stated, "Dad, if you drown, we'll need to go get somebody".  Brent reassured her that one of his purposes of being there was to make sure nobody drowned.

My favorite was the day they learned gun safety. Liesel told me they talked about how you have to wear glasses and ear coverings if you ever fire a gun and to tell an adult if you see one out in the open. She also mentioned you should never point a gun at a person. After a moment of silence Liesel added, "Unless he's a bad guy. Then you have to shoot him until he's dead." I gasped, "Did they teach you THAT?!?" to which she happily replied, "No! I figured that out on my own." I reiterated what she'd been taught in class which is that we NEVER point a gun at another person.

Today Liesel graduated and she showed me what she's been doing the last two weeks. Here are some highlights:

Safety Village is not just a clever moniker... it's an actual little village with these adorable tiny buildings. They learn pedestrian safety and rules of the road in the village which is scaled to kid-sized. 

Liesel in one of the "cars" used when driving the roads of Safety Village. Could she be swimming any more in that t-shirt? I washed it 3 times in hot water to shrink it to no avail. She looks like a Biggest Loser contestant in the final weeks.

The best part about the program is it's staffed by policemen and firefighters so Liesel got to interact with them every day. I'm confident that if she ever got lost, she wouldn't hesitate to stride right up to someone in uniform and ask for help. There was a different rescue vehicle almost every day I dropped her off: police cars, a fire engine, an ambulance... one day an emergency helicopter was sitting there on the lawn! She and her classmates got to explore all of these which honestly made me a little envious.

I love how passionate the kids are about saying "NO WAY!" to strangers!

After her graduation, I took Liesel out for lunch at a crepe place downtown I've been wanting to try out. We're all really glad she had the opportunity to go through an amazing program like Safety Village.