One of the best things about homeschooling is that you know exactly where your kids are most of the day. Still there
are times when everyone is out shopping,
with their friends, or playing sports, when
being able to gather your family, spouse included, is not only a good idea, it’s critical.
Here are some great tips to keep tabs on
your family, no matter where you are or
what you’re doing.
Making Your Family Findable
Smartphones are a phenomenal way to stay
in touch with each other during an emer-
gency. Whether it’s an email, text, tweet, or
Facebook message, if you set up your phone
correctly, you can find out the location and
condition of everyone you love in seconds.
Since emergencies are completely unpre-
dictable, the best way to prepare yourself
and your family is to give yourselves as
many different avenues of communication
as possible. You never know which one will
make the difference.
During the Japan earthquake, cell phone
towers barely worked because of earthquake
damage and overloaded networks. But Wi-Fi was up and running. So what kept the
Japanese connected with their families
and the outside world? Twitter, Facebook,
Skype, and You Tube! Whether we’re talking
about Hurricane Harvey or the California
wildfires, giving yourself and your family
options is a smart idea.
Update Your Smartphones
The best way to begin, is by putting all of
the information you need to have at your
fingertips, right inside your smartphone.
The two most important things you can
do are creating a Family Evacuation Plan
and putting an ICE Contact on each family
member’s phone.
Once you’ve finished, put the phone
numbers, email, social media addresses,
and ICE Contact information for each
family member into the contacts on your
smartphone, your spouse’s phone and, if
they’re old enough, your children’s phones.
Direct Messaging
If cell phone service is down, and you are
unable to text, don’t forget that Twitter and
Facebook can also be used to send direct
messages. A direct message is a personal
message that only goes to the recipient–it’s
not broadcast to the whole world.
Just make sure that every member of
your family is following or has “liked” all of
the other family members on Twitter and
Facebook, which will enable you to direct
message each other.
124 Spring 2018 • Emergency Preparedness www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com
How to Make Your Family Findable
by Laura Greenwald
Here are some great tips to keep tabs on your family,
no matter where you are or what you’re doing.
