The more of your senses actively involved with information, the better you remember. Silent reading is good. Hearing information while seeing it is better--that's why television commercials work. Acting out, reciting poetry or playing a role is better yet because it involves the whole body in the process of learning. And best of all is to involve the emotions with the information.

This whole-body involvement with information is the basis for the drills that T-CEP conducts several times a year. It's why the Fire and Sheriff Departments spend a substantial proportion of their time and dollars on training. If you must act under the stress of an emergency, you will be much more likely to recall what you should be doing if you have not only written it down and talked about it but have also acted it out.

Even within your own family, conducting rehearsals will give everyone a better grasp of what might happen and how they might be expected to behave. Familiarity will help reduce the stress level in a real event. Rehearsals can be simple affairs such as sitting around a table and playing "what if" games. Keying the discussion to the day's news is a good way into the discussion. If there had been a house fire that day it could raise the issue, "What would we have done if that fire had started a big one?" Or, "They're predicting Santa Anas, what have we been intending to do about the wood pile?"

Kids in school can play a very useful role if they use show-and-tells, book reports or other writing assignments to gather information or talk about subjects related to emergency preparation. There are many ways to stay engaged with the topic. The more frequently you do it, the less strange and frightening it becomes and the more it seems like just good sense-like looking both ways when you cross a street.