Indiana’s Safety Village: A Mini Town with a Big Purpose

Our Homeschool Co-op has been doing an amazing job at setting up field trips for the students this summer. We had the opportunity to go to the Fort Wayne Safety Village for a bike safety lesson today. It was such a neat experience. Officer Jessie started by talking about a few rules of the road in the indoor classroom (which was great, it was hot today). The room was set up with little chairs for kids and larger ones for adults. They had many visuals for the kids to see as we discussed the importance of helmets, bike safety checklists, and turning signals. We also watched a short, animated video about the proper way to ride a bike in your neighborhood. I’ll link the video below for anyone interested in teaching their child about bike safety.

After the indoor classroom lesson (about 15 minutes), we went outside to walk the “obstacle course.” The mini city they have constructed is amazing. They have local companies sponsor each building so they kids actually recognize many of the buildings they see in the safety village. Everything is scaled down to kid size, including the traffic lights (which actually work). As we walked through, Officer Jessie pointed out the different stop signs they would need to stop at, as well as the pedestrian walk signs and the railroad crossing lights that would flash for the train. After seeing the course, the kids were allowed to ride freely through the city for about 20-30 minutes. As they did, they practiced following road signs and signaling when they would be turning using proper bike hand signals.

After riding through the town, we sat to eat the lunch we packed at the shaded picnic tables. When my kids were done, they played at the playground as the adults finished eating and talking. If you are local to Fort Wayne, this is definitely worth a visit. It is only open for scheduled field trips, so get a group together and plan a day! You do not need to be an organized school to schedule something, but you do need to have a decent sized group of kids to participate. Here is the link to the city’s website where you will find a request form: https://www.cityoffortwayne.in.gov/786/Safety-Education

Beyond bicycle safety, they also do pedestrian safety classes and gun safety for younger kids. For older kids, they have a really cool, life-sized house that they perform fire safety drills. The house will fill with “smoke” (fog), and they will teach kids how to safely escape in different situations. They have doors that will simulate getting hot to the touch. It helps kids think through other alternatives if one route is blocked. Officer Jessie did mention that they recommend this simulation for older kids because younger children can be frightened by the smokey room.