Local Area Child Abduction Courses

There are roughly 115 stranger abductions per year (once you factor out parent/relative snatchings, etc, true "Jaycee Duggard" snatchings are very, very rare).

Statistically speaking the MOST potentially deadly thing we do every day as parents is strap the kids in the car and drive them somewhere. cited: Car accidents are the leading cause of death for kids between 2 and 14; About 2,000 children die each year from injuries caused by car accidents.

I loved Gavin DeBeckers protecting the gift; it's valuable, useful information without being paranoid. He talks through more common sense things to work with your kids on...who they *should* talk to when they need help, how to ask for help, that sort of thing. And how to model good behaviour for them. GL.

You might already know about this but thought I would mention this. The Safe Side Stranger Safety DVD is outstanding. My kids responded very well to it. Extremely kid friendly with silly songs, skits and bright colors. I am hoping to show it to our entire girl scout troop at the next opportunity.

www.thesafeside.com

Hi E.

They just did a class at my son's school - we live in Roselle. He's in 1st grade and they come out every couple of years and do the class that's age appropriate. It's an organization called- YWCA West Suburban Center, they go to local schools and teach kids about strangers, bullies, sex offenders etc. They also had a meeting for the parents, which I went to and thought it was great.
Check out their website:
www.ywcachicago.org

They recommended a bunch of books for parents to read, one of them I just read: Protecting the Gift by Gavin Debecker
Really good book, I got it from the library, very informative... there is also another one called The Gift of Fear by the same author that I'm going to read next...
I think you can never be too careful when it comes to the safety of your children and this program is really great...
Good luck
Yvette

call your local police and your county police... and see what they say... also talk to your karate place.. maybe they would make a class for this..

Hi- I think it's great you are concerned with protecting your kids. Please don't take this the wrong way but I think we can be too concerned and over do it. I know there is nothing more scary than the thought of someone taking your child but if you look at statistics the possibilty of a complete stranger taking your child is SO remote. If you watch videos, take classes and "talk about it all the time" you are going to scare the heck out of them not to mention waste precious time on something that is just not going to happen. I saw that Jamie Oliver video on you tube and he made the point that while we Americans are literally killing our kids with the food we feed them we are worried about so many random things that in all likelyhood will never happen. Everyone has to make their own parental decisions but I for one try to focus the most time on things that really threaten my children like poor nutrition, navigating streets & street safety, gun violence, molestation and inappropriate touching (sadly by someone they know). I know there is a chance anything could happen but sometimes I think we all watch too much news!

Check out the link below before you start talking about "stranger danger"

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventS...

Eleanor, I just read your question on teaching body language. I went to Amazon, put in body language as a key word and the list of books for children or parents look fascinating....should find whatever you are interested there. Good Luck