Everyone has a role model or someone that they look up to whether that’s a parent, friend, just someone they know or even someone who they read about in a book or saw on TV. Like Bear Grylls for me.
Growing up our peers and role models can really influence us, in positive and negative ways. A lot of time we change who we are to be more like them, feel more accepted and fit in better.
This can be 5 year olds to 15 year olds or 18 year olds to 80 year olds.
No matter what age we are, we’re always going to be influenced by the people we hang around with or the environment we are in. For me growing up out of school where peer pressure for young people is extremely high means I managed to dodge it a bit, but my friends who went to school didn’t and when I see the change it has made to them it makes me quite sad.
But I’ve still struggled throughout the years from being different, being into the outdoors and learning the skills needed to survive in the wild isn’t the most popular interest or hobby. But it was having role models like friends, family or even people I’d only hear or seen on tv but never met that encouraged me.
A lot of what I talk about is aimed at helping young people, teens. But today I want to inspire YOU to help younger kids.
I’ve grown up around a lot of younger kids and have spent lots of time hanging out with them in an outdoor environment where I’ve learnt that younger kids like to look up to older kids.
I’ve realised that younger kids need role models, role models that build them up positively.
But why should we engage with them, why should we take time out of our lives to help them?
When I was young my dad taught me that it’s good to try to put myself in others shoes, we were all young kids once and we all looked up to older kids, we all wanted to hang out with them. So they are just like us, they might look up to you, you could be their hero!!!
But sometimes we think about ourselves too much and we never see it from their perspective. Now I understand that you might not want to spend an afternoon of your weekend hanging out with a 5, 6 or 7 year old but think about the impact that it could have on them if you were to do something with them that made them feel good about themselves or made them happy, something that positively impacted them, I think it’s worth it.
So in this blog I’m going to give you some ideas, big and little, and tips and tricks that I use to try and be a positive role model.
A brilliant way to engage with kids is to go out into nature, it can be just hanging out in the garden and do some survival stuff together. All kids love to BURN THINGS especially boys, it turns something on that’s inside all of us boys and gives us a real sense of adventure and danger. We are well known to love messing around and burning stuff……. well I am.
So if you are trying to engage with a young lad or girl, fire is a perfect activity to do. You can make this super fun as well. So let me tell you how I do it and I’ll give you some tips and tricks to help you too. First top tip is don’t make it like a lesson, you’re just hanging out and having some fun. Make sure it is that, FUN. – And safe of course!!!
To make the fire keep it simple, it doesn’t even matter if you use matches. It’s the achievement of getting a flame that really matters. But I’m going to show you a bit more of a tricky way that can still be done by really young kids. Making flames using a fire steel.
I recommend you practice beforehand – just in case they need help, it’ll build your confidence and you’ll know what to do. It’s really simple, here’s a video on how to use them, what you’re going to need for this and how to light a fire.
A FEW TOP TIPS
Firstly – you might not be able to get wood from nature, so no worries as most garages and supermarkets sell kindling and logs.
Tip two – make sure the BBQ or fire bowl you’re using is not too high for the younger kid to reach – if you’ve only got a tall one then get something sturdy for them to stand on but make sure that it is safe and they can’t tip it forwards and fall into the fire.
It’s really good to have an end goal, for example “Let’s make a fire and then we can roast some marshmallows over it.” I’ve found this always go down a treat.
When using the fire steel if they’re struggling you can hold their hand and do it with them, sometimes all they need is to adjust the angle of the striker and apply a bit more pressure.
The reason this activity is so brilliant is because it engages the kids and when they succeed in making fire it gives them a real sense of achievement and makes them feel good about themselves.
The next few posts are going to be some different things I do to try and be a positive role model and maybe you can give them a go too.
But before I finish here are a few other little things you can do to engage with the kids that look up to you.
If you’re walking along and they call over “Hi”, then shout back, this can make them feel like they’re your friend and that you like them. Or if you see them first say make the effort to call out to them. You can even wander over and have a chat, ask them what they’re up to. This can be for just a minute but it really boosts them and can make them feel important.
If you do this with someone who looks up to you then please do take a picture of you guys standing next to your fire and send it to me.
So that’s it for this blog but keep your eye out for the next few on this same topic.
But for now remember what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
link to buy fire steel
Junior Survivors 
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