When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Firefighter

The Old Schoolhouse recently sent me the WannaBe™-When I Grow Up I Want to be a Firefighter unit to review.

I thought this would be a great unit for my son who loves firemen! It was well written and fairly engaging for him, though he’s only 6. One thing he did ask for right off the bat was “Where are the pictures?”. That was the only downfall of this study that I noticed. I’d like to have seen more pictures in the reading as my kids are young and it helps hold their attention. I also think, based on the amount of reading involved, is that he would have gotten a bit more out of it if he were 8+ years old.

Otherwise, we still managed to enjoy this study, and especially enjoyed the activities that went along with it. Its a great way to introduce future occupations to your children, especially if they are showing an interest. I may look into doing the “Veterinarian” study with my daughter when we’re all done!

Before we start, here is some general information about the TOS Wannabe Series:

• Ages: Kindergarten – 4th grade: The Wannabe Series are generally geared towards Kindergarten through 4th grade, but I do suggest that your child be comfortable with reading, writing and drawing in order to get the most out of the study. I did it with my 6 year old son, and it was too much reading for him. I read most of it then we worked appropriate sheets together.
• Cost: $8.95 per unit, This is a great price for the quantity of materials you will receive for each unit, not to mention the time you’ll save not having to do all the research yourself!
• Supplies: 3 ring Binder, paper/printer, crayons/pencils to complete worksheets, books from suggested reading list. Several of the worksheets were too difficult for my son, the handwriting for instance is quite small, and he wasn’t quite ready for that size print. I’d say it’s maybe 3rd grade sized print. We did many of these orally, but I think that’s fine, you can adjust this to work for your children’s ages. They can even repeat it once they are older if they want.
• Preparation: About 1 weekend to print/organize the unit study. Before starting your unit, I’d also suggest reserving some of the books from your local library that they suggest, this way you’ll have them on hand when you do your study! Also, I would have liked to see a bit more organization in the unit itself, such as what worksheet or activity to do after each reading section, etc. All of the worksheet type activities are in one section, and so I had to sift through them to separate them out so we weren’t doing a bunch of worksheets all at once. But that just takes a bit more planning on my part, I was happy that they were already included in the unit so I didn’t have to go searching for them myself!
• Organization: We printed out the study, then placed the whole thing in a binder that was divided by number tabs to indicate day 1, day 2 etc. (See pic below) That way I knew what we should try to accomplish each day, otherwise the amount of reading can seem overwhelming for a little guy, and to me! Like I said above, I also tried to place appropriate worksheets behind each reading section as well so it was all together when we sat down to do our study.

The Firefighter unit includes:

• The History of Firefighting
• Real life encounter of a firefighter
• Job Requirements
• How much does a firefighter get paid?
• Science Activities
• Firefighter Math
• Vocabulary, word search, crosswords, handwriting and coloring pages
• American Sign Language
• Suggested Memory Verses
• End of Unit Activities

Our favorite parts were the ending activities where we got to practice doing “firefighter” type things. Just to keep the unit a bit more enjoyable for everyone, I mixed in these activities as we read, so we did a fun ‘activity’ each day. Since the unit is quite a bit of reading they really appreciated the ‘games’ they got to play when we were done. Here are some samples of games we liked:

• Stop, Drop, and Roll
• Fire Drill Practice
• Firefighter Relay
• Put out the Fire Game
• Bucket Brigade
• Untangle the Fire Hoses
• Great food suggestions for your Firefighter Theme Party! (We didn’t do the party yet, but I do plan on this. I may even use these ideas for his birthday party this summer!)

If firefighting isn’t your cup of tea, they have several subjects available in the “Wannabe Series” to choose from! Here are some of the other topics you can choose from:

• Doctor
• Chef
• Military
• Veterinarian
• Police Officer
• Missionary
• Artist
• Pilot
• Farmer
• Firefighter

The Old Schoolhouse also makes it available for you to choose the entire bundle for $89.50!

This product was given to me free for review purposes, and I do not have to return the product to the vendor. I was not paid for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.