October 1, 2025

A Guest Blog Post by Ashley Glinka

Ashley Glinka is a former Federal Agent, mom to 3, personal security instructor specializing in families, and the creator of Luxe Life With 3 a blog focused on family and safety. http://www.luxelifewith3.com/

You are
going on a hike through the woods; your 6-yr. old is lagging because the keep
finding “amazing” stones/branches for their collections.  You are talking to your wife and 4 yr. old as
you walk along the twist and turns when suddenly you realize you don’t hear
your oldest.  What just happened? Is your
family prepared? How are your situational awareness skills? Is this something
that you work on teaching your children?

Before I became a mom, I was a covert Federal Agent conducting missions internationally and domestically.  My ability to blend in and sense any change in the atmosphere are what made me extremely good at my job and kept me alive.  After becoming a mom to 3 (twins included) my natural desire to protect was increased and I realized how vulnerable families are.  I knew as an adult all the ways to “train” situational awareness but had to get creative in thinking how to best translate those techniques to teach kids (my own being only 6 and 3.5 years old).

What is Situational Awareness?

Situational Awareness at its core is being aware of what’s in your environment and any changes that could potential be a threat to you physically or to your health. By being aware of any change you give yourself the advantage of time; time to act and asses if you need to leave the area. In many cases your survival will depend on that advantage of time. What you notice can be simple like a change in the wind signaling an incoming storm, a smell of smoke away from your fire pit, or in the middle of summer a person entering an establishment dressed for winter.  Situational Awareness is not about creating a state of paranoia that you operate in but rather an awareness that becomes second nature just like walking and reading.  As a parent we teach our children life skills everyday why wouldn’t we want to teach them about awareness.  A great way to work on a child’s (and adults) situational awareness skills is through play; the following games are easy to incorporate into your daily routine.

Memory

This is an easy game that our family plays daily. As I am going about my routine running errand’s I will randomly ask the kids questions.  “What color car is parked next to us?”, “How many people were in the aisle when we got trash bags?”, “How many exits did you see in the store?”, “What color shirt was our cashier wearing?” as you see the questions are endless and you can start off very basic and progress as your child and you become more proficient.  You can make it into a family challenge too with the kids trying to stump you!

Lost

Understanding how to read street signs and having a sense of direction are critical skills for children.  In this game I (mom) announce “Oh no I am lost how do I get home?” I start this from a close easy location such as school, grandparents’ house, etc.  They guide me home using landmarks and road signs.  They will tell me to turn left on Monroe St, look there is the playground we need to go past that and turn at the next, etc. This game can be done while bike riding, hiking, driving (obviously obey traffic laws) and is great for teaching both situational awareness and direction. 

5-Step Seek

This is a great way to work on situational awareness skills for all ages.  The concept is simple take 5 steps, look around and find 3-5 items (mom or dad call out things; like something green, red, square, etc.), then 5 more steps, repeat. This not only teaches how to really look around but because you are limited on your ability to physically move it teaches you how to use items to look further (reflective objects like windows and mirrors).  You can do this game both inside and outside along with adding other elements like a sibling who is hiding in the room.

The games above can be played with all ages; we start introducing them around toddler age.  They are fluid and allow for you to make the adjustments needed to fit YOUR family; but don’t just limit them to the kid’s parents need to work on these skills as well.  Situational Awareness is a tangible skill that we all need to continuously work on; nobody has ever regretted being more aware.  Like Creek Stewart always says, “It’s not if but when.”

The post Teaching Kids Situational Awareness with Games appeared first on WillowHavenOutdoor Survival Skills.

Most preppers are a little too fond of gear and information gathering. What we all tend to lack is practical application of skills. Make an honest comparison of your ammo cache with the practical skills gained from applying half those dollars to training. Skill building does not need to be expensive. When was the last time you built a fire in poor conditions? Have you ever taken an evasive route…

Source

This week’s recipe is for Health Cookies. It is a recipe excerpted from the scarce book Nine Hundred Successful Recipes, by Lulu Thompson Silvernail. This book, from my own book collection, was published in 1923. A recent change in U.S. copyright law now puts most pre-1925 books in the public domain. Lulu Thompson Silvernail’s emphasis in this book was recipes that included hard red winter wheat flour. This entire recipe book will be just part of the more than 4,000 pages of bonus content that is being added to the SurvivalBlog archive waterproof USB stick. That should be orderable within …

The post Recipe of the Week: Health Cookies appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

I’m sure a lot of our readers have heard this muttered, “if I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.” Well, I can certainly relate to that phrase. When I was younger – much younger – I was totally indestructible, nothing could stand in my way – except for life itself. I will readily admit that, before I became a born again Christian, I didn’t lead the most honorable life – it was actually pretty wild in a lot of ways. Roger Simon, a newspaper reporter in Chicago, Illinois, once wrote …

The post Blackhawk 6-inch Trident Ultralite Boots, by Pat Cascio appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

What are some of the things you take with you for preparedness when you fly far away from home? I’ll get it started with some of what I used to take.

Original source: Do You Fly Often? | Stranded Far Away From Home After SHTF Event

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend. Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is General Hydroponics … Continue reading →

This is the birthday of actor and competitive shooter Robert Stack (1919-2003.) — As with most Mondays, today we feature a product review by our Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio.

The post Preparedness Notes for Monday — January 13, 2020 appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

SHOT Show 2020 Party List: Networking Events, Parties, and Meetups at SHOT

It’s that time a year again, where the top industry experts and companies from the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting accessories industry make their way to Las Vegas. OFFGRID Survival will be covering the show […]

This Article SHOT Show 2020 Party List: Networking Events, Parties, and Meetups at SHOT is an original article from OFFGRID Survival If it is appearing on any other site but OFFGRID Survival, that site does not have our permission to use our copyrighted content!

Jan. 10 is the last day to save up to $70 on Early Bird Registration for the National Safety Council Northeast Conference & Expo, set to take place March 11-13 in Pittsburgh. Don’t miss out – register now and save.