Tips for a safe Bonfire Night at home with the kids

Remember, remember the 5th November! It will be here before we know it. Last night as I was looking through the Tapestry notifications from Albie’s school, I was impressed to see that in Reception Class they had a session on Sparkler Safety. It can be so easy to get caught up in the excitement of Bonfire Night and to overlook a few simple safety measures which can mean the difference in fun or disaster.

Childhood Memories

When I was in primary school myself, a boy from my class went to a fireworks display with his family, excited and revelling in the atmosphere. It was a windy night, a night when his life was to change. As he stood watching the bonfire and fireworks, flaming debris blew off the bonfire and wrapped itself around his arm burning him badly. Over the following months and years, he had to have operations to take skin grafts from his legs to repair the damage to his arms and chest. It is something which has always played on my mind growing up and it is the reason that I am especially careful when taking my own family to watch displays now.

Safety Matters

In order to ensure that your bonfire night goes off with a bang for all the right reasons, Optical Express has put together a few top tips to keep everyone safe;

• Buy quality fireworks with the British Standard code BS 7114 written on the box, from a reputable retailer.
• Keep everyone away from fireworks and make sure that children are supervised at all times.
• Always keep your fireworks in a closed metal box and take them out one at a time.
• Light the fireworks at arms’ length with a taper. Stand well back.
• Never return to a lit firework – even if it hasn’t gone off, it could still explode.
• Wear gloves and hold your sparkler horizontally and as far away from you as you can.
• When the sparkler is no longer burning, put it in a bucket of water to make sure it’s completely out.
• Never touch the end of the sparkler, even if it’s stopped burning for a long time.
• Don’t wave sparklers at anyone else, or run while holding them.

Fun Bonfire Night Facts

Tonight as we were driving home from school Albie was telling me all about Guy Fawkes, he said: “Guy Fawkes wasn’t very nice because he wanted to blow up King Charles but now we burn Guy instead”. Not bad for a 4-year-old, I’m sure he will get a little more accuracy in his story-telling as he gets older.

This leads me to question how much we all know about Bonfire Night so I thought I would share a few fun facts with you;

• It’s also named Guy Fawkes Night after the most famous member of a group of conspirators whose plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament on November 5th, 1605 was foiled.
• Until 1959 it was illegal not to celebrate Bonfire Night in the UK.
• Rockets can reach speeds of up to 150 miles an hour.
• Fireworks were invented 2000 years ago in China and 90% of fireworks are still produced there.
• Throwing a firework is a crime and you can be fined £5000 for doing so.
• Pets don’t like fireworks, so make sure you keep them somewhere quiet and safe.

Fireworks with Mummy Matters

We prefer to attend organised fireworks displays locally as it means that we can enjoy it as a family rather than doing our own at home. Albie is still a little nervous around fireworks so by going to a display rather than in doing them in our back garden we can stand at a long way back and enjoy them without any stress.

How will you be celebrating Bonfire Night?

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