Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. (#CollectiveBias) and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #cbias
Has the weather been wonky in your neck of the woods? In Central Texas we started with a colder than usual winter and have experienced a wetter than usual spring and beginning of summer. That’s the thing about Texas – we’re either in severe drought or under threat of a floods. Couple that with the threat of hurricanes in South Texas, where my family is from, and you get why weather extremes are the norm for us. Sometimes that means that my immediate family, with 7 kids, has to wait out a hurricane or two at my house. Enter my flashlight fun with Duracell. 🙂
While weather extremes are no joke, with at least 7 adults, 7 kids and 5 dogs running around, we need to not only make sure our safety kit is in order, but that we have everything we need to keep us calm, fed and entertained. 🙂
Since my family was in town visiting this past weekend and we had even more rain, we thought it would be a good time to go through our kit and make a trip to our neighborhood WalMart to re-stock it. Since electricity is generally the first to go in severe weather, we knew our first stop had to be in the Duracell battery section. #PrepWithPower
Next, the kids and I headed over to get them their very own flashlights and snacks for the entertainment portion of any future severe weather threat. Tip: That’s an easy way to begin the conversation of safety and preparedness for any event, which helps add a calming tone should you ever need to bring out your kit for any reason.
Once we returned home, the kids loved helping put the entertainment portion of our safety kit together, which included their newly acquired flashlights, Duracell batteries, and snacks for them and our doggies.
If you haven’t yet developed a true safety kit of your own, the CDC suggests you:
- Consider storing two weeks-worth of food supplies. You may be able to use many of the canned goods and dry mixes already in your cupboard.
- Store at least a 3-day supply of water for each member of your family – that means 1 gallon per person per day.
- Learn where your gas, electric, and water shut-off locations are and how to turn them off.
- Don’t forget about pets – their toys (to reduce stress), leashes, food and water .
Then we moved on to enjoy the flashlight fun I had been promising.
Here are a couple of the games I came up with.
Flashlight Freeze Tag – Turn on your radio to some groovy tunes and have an adult hold the flashlight in the off position while the players get to dance around like crazy until the adult turns the flashlight on and flashes it on them. The players have to stay still while the light is shining on them. The first to move is out and the adult turns off the light again and the game continues until all the players are out. The first one out can be the flashlight holder for the next game.
Shadow Charades – An adult will tell each player which shadow charade to create with their hands (make sure to keep the options appropriate for the age group). The player will then stand in front of a wall, with a flashlight shining at his/her hands, and will try his/her best to make shadow puppets on the wall that reflect the word given. Make teams (mix of adults and kids) so that each team can earn points towards a winner.
You can even do regular tag, host a scavenger hunt or even a shadow puppet show with you’re handy, dandy flashlight. The key is to be creative, have fun and help keep everyone calm, safe and entertained when the lights go out. 😀
What fun things have you done to keep your family entertained during a power outage?
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Great ideas for flashlight fun! My Trio and I used to make believe we were camping outdoors, flashing the light on our faces and tell spooky stories, or they’d be the three musketeers and use their lights like swords. Tambien, they used to use the light beams to sync with music and make their own nitetime shows. Good memories during bad times. BB2U
I love that idea of syncing the lights to music. I totally have to have them try that next time!! Thanks for stopping by 😀
Cute ideas!! Def needed when the electricity is out and the kids get bored.
Thanks Candy, the kids had a blast and totally kept them entertained!!
I absolutely love the idea of flashlight freeze tag! That would definitely keep my kids entertained and calm their nerves during a power outage. Thanks for sharing! #client.
Thanks Stephanie, I think that was their fav too!! Hope you’re kids love it as much as mine did. 😀