This week is Fire Prevention Week. If you have children in some form of school, you might see them come home with papers on fire safety. You might hear that a fire truck has visited their school or that they took a walk to the local fire station. While the involvement of firefighters and fire departments in our kids’ school is beyond beneficial, the truth is that you can start at home, well before your kids head to preschool. It’s never too early to start talking about fire safety. This week I’ll be bringing you tips, book reviews and other great things about fire safety.

Today I though I would bring you some links so that you can utilize the Internet as you teach your children about the importance of fire safety. Even very young children can utilize Internet sites, whether for games, for reading or for printing coloring pages. All they need is you to help them locate the sites, work on whatever the site offers and to explain the importance of each site and safety tip. Here are some of my favorites.

1. The National Fire Prevention Week website actually has some great resources for parents and kids. Things like the Fire Safety Inspection Checklist (.pdf) and the Fire Safety Information card are great activities to complete with older children. The arcade on site provides for a fun way to bring a discussion about fire safety into your learning process. For the youngest set, a coloring page with Sparky is made available that highlights the important things to remember to prepare for and in the midst of a fire emergency.

2. Sprout, the PBS kids channel, has a great Fire Safety Week program going on right now, including on their website. This site provides more coloring pages, including a counting one, a Fireman Sam one and some others. (A fun thing on the Sprout site allows for you to upload a picture of your kids’ artwork once it has been completed for others’ viewing pleasure on the website! Cool!) There are also some videos on their Fire Safety page.

3. USFA Kids (US Fire Administration) has a great site that combines pertinent information (Home Fire Safety, Smoke Alarms, and Escaping from a Fire) with some games (Crossword Puzzles, Coloring Pages, a test to be a Jr. Fire Marshal among other things). I found this site to be particularly easy to navigate for a computer-independent child who wants to learn on her own.

4. Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog is one of my favorite programs regarding fire safety. Sparkles’ owner, Firefighter Dayna, is passionate about fire safety (just like we are!). They’re actually part of the Fire Safety Week on Sprout this year! Their site offers more activity pages, GREAT fire safety videos and crafts.

These are just some great online resources for you, as a parent, to help your children understand the importance of fire safety. As a parent you need to know these things as well. First and foremost, know your house’s floor plan and make a fire escape plan should an emergency occur. Teach things as simple as “stop, drop and roll” and the importance of getting low should the hallway be filled with smoke. As you help your child navigate the online resources for learning about fire safety, make sure you’re up-to-date on all of your knowledge. Your family’s lives depend on it!

Tomorrow I will have a review of some younger child storybooks that also highlight some fire safety points. Be sure to tune in all week as I bring you various tips, fun pictures and other pertinent facts on fire safety. (Also, as this is October and Halloween is just around the corner, check out our review of the best firefighter costume on the market right now, pictured above.)

It is never too early to teach your children about fire safety. While this year’s theme for Fire Prevention Week has been Prevent Home Fires, the truth remains that home fires will happen. You need to teach your children what to do in that case. You need to have a plan. You need to practice that plan. And you need to teach personal safety.

BigBrother has known this phrase for awhile. He’d like to share it with you.

He’s not quite three yet and, as I said, he’s known it for awhile. He’s just recently understood that it pertains to fire safety, of course, but the point is this: talking about safety matters early and often is never a bad thing. Take some time this weekend to teach your kid(s) how to stop, drop and roll!

Have a safe, fire-free weekend!

Fire Prevention Week continues. To do my part, as a FireMom, I took fire truck and helmet shaped cookies in to BigBrother’s preschool class yesterday. The Fire Department (yes, FireDad’s department) visited and brought Fire Pup along. This morning I heard BigBrother telling FireDad all about it; how he gave Fire Pup a high five and hug. FireDad’s reply of, “Really?! NO WAY!” was believable. To BigBrother. (In other news: BigBrother was very well-behaved, said my inside source, Fire Pup.)

And so, cookies. We used to have a fire truck, helmet and hydrant. But the hydrant is missing. (Very much like these on eBay. Grab some now!)

I cut the cookies out. Of premade dough. I know. So shoot me.

I did all of this with LittleBrother on my back. He was wearing fire truck pajamas, too, so it was all very fitting.

I learned the hard way that white icing + red food coloring does not make red icing. I had to use a bottle and a half of red food coloring. Win!

Sprinkles are always a hit.

To deliver the cookies, I had to throw LittleBrother on my back and carry two big trays. The icing was still wet so I couldn’t stack anything. So, lesson learned: ice the night before and place in the fridge to harden. Also, as I learned from a friend, the longer you let the red food colored icing sit, the more red it will get. So doing all of this the day before would be the best option. Lessons learned.

All of the kids left school that afternoon with red smears on their faces, dalmatian ears on their heads, smiles on their faces and squeals to their mommies about Fire Pup. It was heart-warming indeed. As I buckled BigBrother into his set, they brought the fire truck back around the block and FireDad was able to wave at BigBrother who was, of course, very excited. (Ahem. As was I because, well, he’s a handsome dude hanging out of that fire truck window.)

BigBrother learned a few things from the firefighter as well. So, maybe this isn’t all about cookies. But it kind of is because we took the leftovers to the fire department and made some guys pretty darn happy about Fire Prevention Week.

The National Fire Protection Association kicks off Fire Prevention Week today. Well, yesterday. But in my world, weeks start on Monday. All the same, October 5-11 is a time this year for you to concentrate on how to “Prevent Home Fires,” which is this year’s theme.

An important theme, don’t you think? Especially when you take into account the number of fires in general that took place in 2007. Of the 1,557,500 (reported/big/etc) fires in 2007, 414,000 were in homes like yours and mine. Furthermore, in seventeen of those house fires, five or more people died. We don’t have five people living in our home. But we do have people who visit. Do you want to become a Catastrophic Multiple-Death Fire statistic? I don’t.

I’ll be writing a post each day this week about home fire safety. (Including a post about Fire Pup, from our Fire Department, visiting BigBrother’s preschool on Thursday. I’ll have the insider view, even though I won’t be there, as rumor on the street is that the guy inside the costume is someone we all know and love.) In the meantime, you need to take some time this week to read the Fire Prevention Week 2008 blog. And you need to start asking yourself if your family is prepared (as you can be) in the event of a house fire. My guess is that, no, you are not. Because a certain fire family that you know and love, ahem, could probably put a little work into their own home safety this week. Not naming any names.

If you have any fire related questions regarding home safety that you haven’t wanted to hijack a post in the comments with, please feel free to ask it now. I’ll try to address it this week as we focus on the importance of fire safety.

Pass the word on. Preventing home fires is never a bad thing.

(Of note: Photos of the house fire are from the 2007 county fire school burn that I shot. Not a “real” house fire.)