Spring has sprung here in Pittsburgh! It’s exciting to have warmer weather and more daylight, but spring also typically brings in some storms. For young children, storms can be scary. This is mostly because they don’t fully understand what is happening and why. Storms bring darkness (especially if the lights go out) and often loud sounds too. Kids can sometimes have trouble sleeping during a storm. Of course this would be frightening if you don’t know what’s going on and/or are caught off guard! Don’t wait until a storm arrives to help your child through it. Start now. Here are some ways you can prepare your child for storms.
Talk and learn about it.
Turn it into a learning experience and teach your child what a storm is and why it happens. You can go to your local library and find age-appropriate books about rain, wind, thunder, etc. You can watch videos like The Magic School Bus- Kicks Up a Storm. Help your child learn that storms are just a part of life. They come and they go, and- at least here in Pittsburgh- they don’t usually cause too much of a problem (as opposed to storms like hurricanes and tornados). When you take the unknown factor about storms away, it makes them a little less scary.
Turn it into play.
You can use stuffed animals or dolls to role play what you’ll do when there’s a storm. When you learn about rain and wind, you can play and pretend to be these things.
“The wind blows around during a storm, let’s pretend to be the wind!” Then “blow” around your living room, making sounds like the wind. Pretend to be rain falling from the clouds or thunder clapping. Turning a storm into play can give children good things to think about when the storm comes.
Explain exactly what will happen.
Prepare your child to know exactly what will happen when a storm does come. What will you do if the power goes out? What will happen if you’re out somewhere when a storm starts. What will happen if a storm comes at night? Etc.
“Sometimes the power goes out when a storm comes. That means we won’t have any lights. But we have these cool flashlights to use if that happens. Won’t that be so fun?!”
In Regard to Sleep…
If you know a storm is coming that may affect your child’s naps or nighttime, there are a few things you can do to help avoid issues. First of all, use a sound machine with white noise. If you already use one, crank up the volume when a storm is coming. If you don’t yet use one, you should! Read here about why you should use a sound machine. On the note of sound machines, it doesn’t hurt to get one with a backup battery in case of power outages. We love the LectroFan Micro2 here at our house! It’s a great non-looping sound machine, it’s small and portable, and it has a backup battery that will keep it running in a power outage!
You may also consider moving your child to the basement during the storm if space is available. He’d be much less likely to hear the strong winds, thunder, and rain smacking on the windows- all the sounds that could cause him to wake up and fear what’s happening. You can make it fun. Have a picnic-style dinner and then “camp out” together to avoid storm frights during the night.
When the storm hits, if your child is scared despite your preparation efforts, then offer comfort and do whatever is needed to help him sleep. It’s one night, an “off” night. You can get back to your routines and things the following night. No biggie!
What other ideas do you have to help prepare children for storms?
[avatar user=”ashleybell” /]
