Trio of Videos Can Help Keep Kids Safe
You can talk to kids about safety, but how can you be sure it sinks in? You think you know what to do in an emergency, but how prepared are you, really? This trio of worthwhile videos provides good information and visuals that may help lock the messages home.
“Keeping Kids Safe!”: Aimed at ages 5-10 and their parents or caretakers, this useful video shows ways your children can be safer in public places, from parks and bathrooms to malls and schools (although the section on bullies is a bit too tongue-in-cheek).
Most importantly, it serves as a clear, comfortable guide for ways to decide ahead of time whom to turn to for help, how to take positive action and how to institute conversation about safety; it even addresses how safety outweighs potential embarrassment in uncertain situations.
Host Kevin Perline is clearly no professional actor, but this experienced safety educator and his kid sidekick do an excellent job of communicating a difficult subject without exaggerating fears.
* “Keeping Kids Safe!,” PSI Productions, 27 minutes, $14.95 plus shipping, (800) 684-6818.
“Save Your Baby’s Life”: A straightforward, low-tech, purely instructional video with an RN showing proper emergency techniques to use on infants from birth to 1 year who are choking or can’t breathe. Various scenarios where such help would be needed are included and rescue breathing, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the Heimlich maneuver, all baby-style, are carefully demonstrated, explained and reviewed.
* “Save Your Baby’s Life,” Education Enterprises, 30 minutes, $19.95 plus shipping, (800) 331-6534.
“Fire Safety for Kids”: A feel-good, live-action video for ages 2-8, set in a colorful classroom full of appealing kids, featuring Beasel the Easel (a perky young woman in costume), who comes to life to illustrate fire safety tips, aided by the computer-animated Hector the Smoke Detector. A series of bouncy songs disseminate most of the information. There’s also a musical trip to a real fire station and outdoor shots of the kids demonstrating their “Stop, drop, cover and roll” techniques.
All profits go to the Widows and Orphans Fund of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.
* “Fire Safety for Kids,” Children’s Video Development, 23 minutes, $14.95 plus shipping, (800) 222-3998.
Stage Notes: The North Wind Quintet will put on a kid-friendly “Classic Fun!” chamber music concert Saturday at 10 a.m. at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, with pre-concert, interactive workshops at 9 a.m. Tickets are $7; reservations: (213) 466-1767. . . . “The Butler Did It, Evening B,” short, “one-on-one” collaborative plays with and by adult theater professionals paired with child members of the Virginia Avenue Project, the West Coast arm of New York’s 52nd Street Project, will be presented Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 3 and 7:30 p.m. at UCLA’s Little Theatre. Free, but reservations required: (310) 330-8860.