Our former community in Northern Ohio has fabulous "Safetytown" programs for children as young as 3. DS1 took a 2 week (30 hour) class a few days after his 3rd birthday, then again at 4 and a different one at 5. They are taught by a partnership between the police, teachers and high school volunteers.
Every day, they introduced new safety themes and taught the children the dangers in simple, easy concepts that were not scary. They covered swimming, poison, fire, animals, street crossing, bike safety, bus safety, stranger danger, etc. One day, they took the children to a smokehouse, had them lay on a cot, started up the "smoke," and showed them how to drop to the floor, touch the door (which was warm!), crawl to the window, and get pulled out by a firefighter in full uniform (including the scary mask). As a mom, I am SO relieved that he's had that experience in a nonthreatening way!
The highlight of the week was always the last day. After pounding "stranger danger" into their heads for 2 weeks, they went to the playground across from the fire station. The teachers/counselors walked off the playground one by one, and were replaced with about five "strangers" (other non-uniformed police) looking for a dog, offering candy, etc. (The parents were all watching this from a window in the fire station.) It was astounding to watch pack after pack of children follow these strangers out of the playground! Parents were always gasping because they were *so sure* their children understood stranger danger, esp after 2 weeks of class.
I asked a CHP liutenant if we have anything like this in our area, but it sounds like there isn't. I am planning a trip to Ohio around the schedule next year so my now-2 year old can do this.
It's so scary, and so hard for us to teach them on our own!!
