This is a sponsored post on behalf of the great folks at NFPA & WeAreTeachers.

This week is National Fire Prevention Week, and as Ayva is now in kindergarten, it’s the perfect time to be really intentional with lessons about fire safety. Does your child know what to do if there’s a fire in your home? Well, I asked Ayva, and although she did know what to do if there was a fire at school, she wasn’t really sure to do if we had one at home. This week we’ll be spending a lot of time talking about fire safety and prevention, and going over our family plan of what to do if there is a fire. One of the tools that I’m using to help with lessons during fire prevention is the new NFPA/Sparky.org Fire Prevention Week app, “Sparky and the Case of The Missing Smoke Alarms“.

We started tonight by going through each room in our apartment to locate the smoke alarms and sprinklers. Our building just had a fire inspection a couple of weeks ago, so we didn’t have to check our alarms, but Ayva did write down where each of the alarms is, and took note of the number of sprinklers we have in our place. It was a good lesson for me because I didn’t even notice the sprinklers we have in the closet!

Once Ayva finished her smoke alarm inventory, we read the story of Sparky and the Case of The Missing Smoke Alarms. In the story, Sparky the Dog and his sidekicks catch an intruder leaving Sparky’s Aunt Dotty’s house. When they go inside to investigate, they discover that smoke alarms are gone from the house. Fortunately, Sparky has a few alarms with him and replaces the missing ones right away. As we read through the story, there were different fire safety tips throughout, in addition to cool sound effects and animation. It’s very entertaining and actually made learning about fire safety fun.

The app  is great for both parents looking to engage with their children, or for independent learning. The story has a read aloud option which will allow Ayva to enjoy the book even when I’m not available to read to her, and a lot of games and other in app activities to teach her about fire safety without scaring her. Ayva’s like me in that she’s a thinker and easily spooked. She was concerned about what would happen if the smoke alarm were to come on at night, and said that she might be afraid to go to sleep. Being able to talk about the benefits of smoke alarms and how they actually keep us safe, and having the Sparky and the Case of The Missing Smoke Alarms story to support what I was telling her was incredibly helpful.

Find out more about Sparky and the Case of the Missing Smoke Alarms at Sparky’s Schoolhouse online. You can get the app for IOS or Android, and even a PDF of the story. The site is really just an awesome resource for fire safety. If you’re on Twitter, you can follow the #FPW2014 hashtag for more information on teaching your children about fire safety.