Homeschool Resource Review: Wanna Be: When I Grow Up I Want to be a Firefighter

TOS Magazine's Schoolhouse Store sent us an e-book from their "Wanna Be Series" to review. They sent us When I Grow Up I Want to be a Firefighter this e-book is available for $8.95 from the TOS store.

I LOVE the TOS store! They have a ton of homeschool resources and shipping is always free!

This ebook is designed as a multi-age unit study for children ages 4-10, adaptable for the whole family.

One thing I liked about this unit study, compared to some of the other ebook unit studies I've used is that it included plenty of information, I didn't have to get other books or hunt down the information online, I could just read it straight out of the e-book. This e-book was on firefighters so it included information on what firefighters do, the history of fire fighting in the US, equipment used by firefighters, etc. It also includes coloring pages, handwriting pages (both printing & cursive), writing prompts, suggestions for math, directions for making a styrofoam robotic arm, and much more.

We used this unit as an "extra" over the last couple of weeks. While A1 & A2 aren't necessarily interested in being firefighters when they grow up, they ARE interested in firefighting because Daddy was a volunteer firefighter/EMT when he was in college.

Overall, I found the language/tone of the information to be interesting, but written at a slightly more advanced level than is comfortable for my kids (and at 6, almost 7, they are near the middle of the stated age range, and while we've taken a relaxed approach to reading and writing, I feel that they are at or above age/grade level in their vocabulary comprehension). I found myself rewording parts of it into simpler words, and explaining other words. Similarly, I found most of the included activities to still be beyond my children's abilities. They enjoy word searches, but found the included one to be too challenging. The math also seemed to be geared at a higher level. So . . . I'd consider this unit to be more of a 3rd to 6th grade unit study, with the coloring pages and such available to keep younger siblings interested while the older children did the actual study.

I think this would be a great, fun option for a child who was very interested in firefighters! If, at some point any of my kids show a distinct interest in any of the other professions in this series, I'll probably get the ebook for them!