Survival Skills for Kids in Pictures — Printable Outdoor Skills Workbook

EVERY STEP IS A PICTURE. THAT IS THE WHOLE IDEA.

Most survival books for children are walls of text with a few gray drawings. A kid opens one, finds a page with no pictures on it, and quietly puts it down again.

This one is the other way round. Forty-five outdoor skills, each on its own two pages, each drawn step by step in full color — so a child can see what to do, then go and do it, without a grown-up reading it to them.

WHAT'S INSIDE — 9 parts, 45 skills
- THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES - the STOP rule, why staying put gets you found, marking your spot, being big, bright and loud
- BEFORE YOU GO - packing a day bag, the pocket safety kit, leaving a plan, layers, reading the forecast
- GETTING FOUND - whistle codes, signal mirrors, ground signals a search plane can read, making a phone work on almost no signal
- SHELTER AND STAYING WARM - picking a spot, building a lean-to, the emergency blanket, and the ground-insulation mistake nearly everyone makes
- FIRE - the fire triangle, building a lay, lighting it, feeding it, putting it out cold to the touch
- WATER - where to look, why you never drink from a stream, boiling it safely, collecting rain and dew
- FINDING YOUR WAY - a compass, a map, finding north with a stick, handrails, retracing your steps
- KNOTS AND ROPE - the five knots that do almost everything, drawn strand by strand
- READING THE OUTDOORS - clouds, tracks, wind, judging daylight with your hand

ON EVERY SINGLE SKILL
- Five numbered picture steps
- "Watch out" - the one mistake almost everybody makes
- "Try it in the backyard" - a safe way to practice it today, at home, without going anywhere wild
- "Level up" - one harder version for when the first one is easy

PERFECT FOR
Homeschoolers, forest school, Scout leaders, summer camps, classroom teachers, and any child who would rather be outside than reading.

WHAT YOU GET
- 1 PDF file, 121 pages, full color
- 8.5 x 11 inches (US Letter) - prints on A4 with "Fit to page" selected
- Print the whole book, or just the pages you need, as often as you like for your own family or your own classroom

WHAT YOU NEED
- Any PDF reader. Adobe Acrobat Reader is free. Nothing to install, nothing to edit.
- A printer or a copy shop. Designed in full color; every skill still works printed in black and white if you would rather save ink.
- Standard 8.5 x 11 paper. A binder or folder is handy but optional.
- No color printer at home? Most copy shops will print and spiral-bind the whole book for a few dollars.

HOW DELIVERY WORKS
1. Buy it - nothing physical is shipped and there is no wait.
2. The PDF is available immediately under Purchases and reviews > Downloads in your Etsy account, and in your confirmation email.
3. Download on a computer or tablet (phone downloads can be awkward), then print.

SAFETY, AND TWO THINGS THIS BOOK LEAVES OUT ON PURPOSE
Every fire skill requires an adult and says so on the page. There is a page for grown-ups at the front covering supervision, and nine never-ever rules at the back.

This book does not teach first aid, and it does not teach children to find or eat wild food. Both need a real person teaching in real life, and no illustration is reliable enough to tell a safe plant from a dangerous look-alike. The book teaches the opposite rule instead - you do not eat anything you find outside - and explains why.

AI DISCLOSURE
The nine part-opener illustrations and the cover were created with the help of AI image tools and reviewed and selected by the author. The 225 step-by-step diagrams are vector drawings authored by the author, not AI-generated. The text was written with AI assistance under the author's direction.

Personal and single-classroom use only. Please do not resell or redistribute.