As we are coming into the colder months.. (I'm not sure where our summer has gone this year!), we thought it timely to remind you about car seat safety, and offer some tips for encouraging your child to understand the importance of buckling up.
As parents/carers, we spend a lot of time and money choosing the safest car seats and installing them properly to keep our precious children protected in case of an accident.
Did you know, though, that if your child is wearing a thick coat, their harness will not be close enough to their body to protect them? In a collision, the harness is effectively loose enough that a child’s body could move before the harness starts to restrain the child, which reduces the safety of the seat considerably.
A better option, if you’re worried about them getting chilly, would be to leave a hat on them and once plugged into their seat, to put a blanket on them.
Another conversation we have at nursery with parents regarding children in the car is that they will sometimes unbuckle themselves whilst moving. How do we stop them doing this? At nursery we use this as a conversation during circle times or with small groups, explaining why we shouldn’t undo ourselves and that’s a grown-ups job!
We always encourage using books to support learning, and would suggest ‘Better buckle up’ by Suzie W; ‘All Buckled Up’ by A Zimmerman, or ‘Peppa Pig: George’s Racing Car’ – all of these are available on Amazon.
You can use these books to make starting points for conversation, depending on the age of the child: (why) do you think George is wearing a seatbelt? (why) do you think Mummy Pig has undone George’s seatbelt now? Simple describing the pictures and pointing out the seatbelts and locks are all such valuable lessons.
@BananaMoon - 3 years ago
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