Have you tried a free month’s subscription to Informed Families’ Family Table Time activity kit? This is an innovative program we developed to help bring families together, with an extensive set of tools geared toward reclaiming family dinners.

Each month covers a series of topics designed to promote values, ethics, and principles. For example, the July kits’ topics include freedom, sun and heat safety, vacations, money management, and TV and video games.

You may wonder what a topic like sun and heat safety, for example, has to do with keeping kids away from drugs and alcohol. But the fact is, we’re about helping children and teens thrive in all areas of their lives.

And their lack of knowledge about the dangers of sun and heat, two of the main features of summer, can be deadly.

Long-term damage

Did you know, for instance, that a single bad sunburn in childhood can double the risk for skin cancer later in life? Or that the ultraviolet (UV) rays from tanning beds are just as dangerous as sunlight?

And when it comes to heat-related illness in children and teens, they often don’t know what warning signs to watch for. Or they aren’t paying attention when they’re caught up in the moment of playing.

Or—and this, of course, is especially typical of teenagers—they think it can’t happen to them.

If that’s their attitude, you might point out that just last month, former Dallas Cowboys running back Marion Barber III, 36, died of heatstroke. Barber spent seven years in the NFL, including six with the Cowboys, before ending his career with the Chicago Bears.

On June 1, police found him dead in his apartment, with the thermostat set to 91 degrees. The medical examiner released his findings on July 12, adding that Barber was “known to exercise in sauna-like conditions.”

If it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.

Where to get facts

Because it’s up to us to protect kids from themselves, be sure they know the warning signs and symptoms of heat-related illnesses (i.e., heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps), and what they should do if they encounter them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a handy guide here. (https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat/warning.html#text)

And here’s a good guide to sun safety, also from the CDC. (https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/basic_info/sun-safety.htm

Meanwhile, if you haven’t already done so, do yourself and your family a favor by subscribing to our Family Table Time materials.