Review:: When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Firefighter

 

I couldn’t believe my luck when I was asked to review The Old Schoolhouse’s e-book When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Firefighter, part of their WannaBe Series.  After all, I have a six-year-old firefighter wannabe in my home:  a little guy who races to the window to see a fire engine drive by, who pretends to put out fires in the bathtub, and who dreams of one day owning a fire dog… and a fire cat!

The When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Firefighter e-book is a unit study suggested for children ages 4-10, but said to be a fun learning experience for older students… and Mom and Dad.   The authors of this e-book maintain that students will develop their math, writing, science, and memory skills while learning about firefighting and the men and women who do this job.  Students will also have to opportunity to use their physical abilities and develop homemaking skills.

After downloading this e-book, I sat down to preview it before showing it to the boys.  The first thing that struck me was the lack of photos.  There are a number of pages of text to read with no photos at all.  Other pages have one photo per page-long section.   I was not sure this would keep Connor’s attention; he is a visual learner and still very much requires visual images to reinforce what is being read to him.  When we began to read through the book, I found my initial concerns to be warranted.  The basic information on firefighters was already familiar to him and he sat through that, adding things he had learned through books, videos, and visits to the fire station.  When the text moved into unfamiliar information:  building codes and firefighter salaries, however, Connor’s interest quickly faded.  

After reading through the first few sections of text, we looked through the suggested activities to find a couple to complete.  While there were handwriting prompts in print as well as cursive, the majority of the paper and pencil activities seemed to be for students at the upper end of the suggested age-range.  The crossword puzzle, word find, fill-in-the blank activity and suggested writing prompts were all too difficult for my six-year-old.  They seemed more appropriate for Ryan, who is almost nine.  Unfortunately, although Ryan was interested in the differences in firefighter pay from one area of the country to another, he was not excited about an entire unit study on fire-fighters; after all, he is sure he is going to be a LEGO designer when he grows up!

After settling on a coloring page for Connor to complete, we moved on to some of the activities and games.  There are several relays in this section and Connor thought they sounded like fun.  Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait to try them when the three feet of snow covering our front yard begins to melt; racing through the deep snow to put on “fire clothes” or playing with buckets of water in 30 degree weather may just be enough to discourage the little guy from pursuing a career in fire fighting!   On the whole, the hands-on and physical activities in this section of the e-book excited my six-year-old firefighter wannabe, but I would venture to say older children would find them silly.

While I was able to pick and choose sections of text and activities that interested Connor, overall, the text and written activities in this e-book appeared to be best for a slightly older student.  As a result, I would recommend this e-book to students between the ages of 8-10 who are interested in learning more about firefighting as a career, just be forewarned that you may have to come up with some of your own hands-on and physical activities for this age group.  A firefighter’s physical fitness test:   distance running, chin-ups, sit-ups, push-ups and the likes might be fun.  If you have a firefighter wannabe who might enjoy the When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Firefighter e-book, you’ll find it at TOS Magazines’ Schoolhouse Store for only $8.95. 

*  A thorough introduction to the basics of firefighting, becoming a  firefighter, and 

          following fire code.

*  Perfect for the older elementary student interested in becoming a firefighter; so often

          books on firefighting are aimed at younger children.

*  Pictures… there just weren’t enough of them to keep Connor’s attention as we read.

*  There seemed to be some inconsistency in the targeted age-range.  Although the 

          developers suggest the unit is appropriate for children ages 4-10, much of the 

          written text and all of the paper-and-pencil activities would be too difficult for 

          children at the lower end of that range while many of the hands-on and physical 

          activities appeared to be designed with the younger child in mind and would be 

          too silly for older children.

I was not paid for this post.  All opinions expressed in this post are mine.