Riding scooters, rollerblades and bicycles - these are pastimes that children adore. But while they play with their favorite children's vehicles, we parents are left with the worry of how they cross, whether they will jump into a busy street (very likely) and how they behave on the road as a road user.
Unfortunately, we all know the risks of improper crossing and how dangerous any distraction could be, especially for children who often run or play near the street.
In order for our children to be prepared from an early age for this challenge, it is important to talk to them about this topic and demonstrate to them the observance of traffic rules through our personal example.
For young children, the most authoritative figures in their lives are parents and teachers. Neither the role of parents nor educators should be excluded from this equation, but on the contrary, they should work as a team. Only then could we hope that our children will get the necessary knowledge of how to behave on the road and what the different roles are - pedestrian, passenger and driver of a motor vehicle or bicycle.
How to teach children basic safety rules?
Teach them to cross at crosswalks. This is one of the most important things that children should know from an early age. Crossing indiscriminately, without considering the pedestrian paths, will confuse the child and create a serious difficulty for him to learn the general safety rules.
What you must emphasize when talking to the child is that not every driver follows the rules and may not stop at a crosswalk. Therefore, children and adults should always be careful when crossing.
Explain to them the main signals that drivers give in traffic To make it more fun and easy for children to remember, you can make it in the form of a game - while driving to explain to the children about the different signals that drivers give to other road users, as well as about traffic lights and their role in traffic. To give the children an incentive to learn them, you can play while you are traveling - for the children to say every time a participant does not signal or obey the traffic rules, and thus they will accumulate points and receive some small reward accordingly.
"Don't run into the street!". You say that often, don't you? It's one of the essential safety rules, but any parent will admit it's the hardest to learn, because what kid doesn't love to run? That's right, children don't have brakes, goes the famous phrase, but the parent is the authority who must educate the child not to run when on the street, but to be very careful and cautious when approaching a crossing. Be patient because this process is slow, requires persistence and constant reminder.
For bikes with love Is there a child who doesn't love to ride a bike? Probably not. This sport is one of the favorite pastimes of kids, but it also carries great risks if you are not careful. A large number of children start riding a bicycle from an early age, and our task as parents is to make sure that they are familiar with the safety rules such as: checking that the bicycle is in good condition; to always wear a safety helmet, optionally and knee pads; to ride in the bike lane when there is one; not to ride a bike after dark.
Don't rush Children are playful and almost always rush to get on or off the respective motor vehicle, but this can be dangerous and risky. Talk to them from a young age about the importance of not rushing when getting on or off a car/bus and that they should always look around before doing so.
Introduce them to the online lessons of the campaign "Cross Safely with TEDI". Very often we take the wrong tactic of educating children about traffic rules only through prohibitions, threats and warnings. But this approach in many cases acts as repulsive and startling for children, and it would be more effective to prepare them through example situations explained comprehensibly for them, in accessible language and above all with visualization. Children absorb new information much more easily when it is presented to them through pictures or video.
This is also the idea of the educational campaign "I cross safely with TEDI", which aims to teach children about road safety. The initiative aims to cover 30 schools in the country, and in order for the videos to be interesting and grab the attention of young children, their favorite bear TEDI also participates. Due to the complicated situation in schools during the current school year, an online multimedia lesson has been created for elementary school students in three parts, which presents the three roles of children as participants in road traffic - pedestrians, drivers and passengers
Students in elementary grades will learn important rules for proper behavior when crossing streets, when traveling in a car, and when riding bicycles and scooters. After the lesson, they will be able to complete an online test to verify and confirm the new knowledge.
Over 8,000 children from first, second and third grades in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Velingrad and Lovech will take part in the virtual lesson developed by Timbark Bulgaria, together with experts from the Ministry of Education and science and with inspectors from the "Traffic Police" Department of the Main Directorate "National Police" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
