Ditto's Keep Safe Adventure

This afternoon we all sat down and watched Ditto's Keep Safe Adventure Show, a DVD (starring Ditto the lion cub and Fairysafe) that aims to teach kids personal safety skills. It's also Australian - so nice to have the Aussie accents!

I was a little put off at first by the over-the-top, slightly condescending way in which Fairysafe spoke to the audience but I'm aware that lots of kids' TV/DVD shows use this tone and most people probably wouldn't be aware or bothered by it. Certainly it didn't have any trouble holding the attention of my 3 boys!

The DVD covers a number of topics and uses catchy tunes to help teach kids about 'yes feelings' and 'no feelings' and how those feelings might physically make them feel; good and bad secrets; private parts; saying 'no'; and telling someone that they can trust, amongst other subjects. Personally I generally don't use the term 'secret' when talking to my kids, preferring the term 'surprise' (ie. "I got Daddy a Bazinga hoodie for Christmas but don't tell him, it's a surprise" ;) ). There's nothing too specific either when discussing private parts, leaving any specific terminology up to the parents (private parts are defined as mouth, chest, between the legs and bottom).

I wasn't overly keen on the blanket statements regarding the people that children can trust (teacher, policeman etc) but given that pretty much everything comes with 'as long as you feel safe' I didn't feel it was such a big deal. And as with anything on this subject matter, the DVD shouldn't be treated as a stand-alone, teaches your kids everything they need to know thing. Parental involvement is so important! I was quite happy with it as a tool to facilitate discussion with the kids.

After we watched the DVD we went through the activity book and I gave the boys their mini Dittos (which they instantly fell in love with). We did skip a few pages in the activity book but the boys enjoyed what we did do and then they went back through it of their own accord later and did some of the colouring in and other activities (or scribbled as in Beanie's case). It was quite evident that they had actually absorbed a fair amount of useful information from the DVD that they were able to apply and discuss as we went through the book. Loo then requested to watch the DVD again so we had a repeat screening. :)

I'd say that Shmoo got the most out of both the DVD and activity book. Loo probably got more out of the DVD but still did enjoy the book. I'd recommend it for kids aged about 4 or 5 through to about 10. We also have the CD of songs used in the DVD but we haven't listened to it yet, probably will in the car tomorrow!

There's a bit more info about Ditto here; and the DVD, activity book and other resources are available to purchase from here.