Wednesday, April 14, 2010

When I Grow Up, I Want to Be... A Firefighter




If you and your children are looking to learn more about what it is like to be a firefighter then, look no further than e-book, When I Grow Up, I Want to Be… A Firefighter done by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine from the Wannabe Series.

This 80 page e-book covers every subject you need for a day of school. You will learn the history of firefighting, what it takes to become a firefighter, and how much a firefighter gets paid in different parts of the United States.

This comprehensive e-book has:
Building a robotic arm and why firefighters use them.
Learning important firefighting vocabulary through a fill-in-the-story, word search, crossword and copywork.
Fun coloring pages.
End of the unit activities and games.
Answers to all of the activities in the back.

What I Like: I thought this e-book was well written and a lot of fun for the whole family! B (age six) and C (age 4) were really excited to learn about being a firefighter. They always enjoy going by our local fire station, so this book was for them. I enjoyed learning the history of firefighting and the different wages around the country. Our weather has been chilly, so when it is nice we are going to do the fun games with their cousins. There were just a couple of websites to visit and the best one was of a steam-powered fire engine. The suggested memory verses were thought provoking and dealt with fire as well. This book might be difficult for the younger grades, but as the parent you can look at it and decide what will work for your child now and then do it again in a couple years when your child can do more of the work.

What I Dislike: B does kindergarten/1st grade work and the math and word search were very difficult for him. We had to work on these items together and it was frustrating for him when he was unable to get the answers correct or find the words. For the word search, I ended up having to find the words for him and marking the first letter and it even took me a long time to find the words. He enjoyed the word search after I made it easier for him.

What B likes and dislikes: I love it. I loved the math. The word search and math were very hard. I loved coloring the pictures of the fire truck and Dalmatian.

Age Appeal: ages 4-10, but I think the whole family will enjoy it

Vendor Information: The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, 2009; e-book, $8.95

Vendor Contact Information: www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com

More Wannabe Series Products: When I Grow Up I Want to Be a… Farmer, Missionary, Police Officer and more

Disclaimer: I received this product for free for review purposes.

Expedition Australia




Start up your computer and get ready to visit Australia in Download N Go Expedition Australia, by Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse!

Each day you will visit a different aspect of Australia:
Day 1: Where on Earth is Australia?
Day 2: Some of the Special Places in Australia.
Day 3: A Bit of Australian History.
Day 4: Cool Things to Know About Australia.
Day 5: Fun and Games in Australia.

Your day will consist of geography, word-of-the-day, Australian animal-of-the-day and weather here and there to help your child learn and build their lapbooks.

The Internet is an integral part of this unit study with links to YouTube and other sites, so you may need high speed internet for the videos, but dial-up will be fine for the other sites.

What I Liked: I was excited when I received this unit study. I did not know very much about Australia and I knew my excitement would excite the kids as well.

B (age 6) and C (age 4) were excited each day to learn more about Australia. Since we just do school in the morning took several days to do each “day, so we were able to spend a relaxing time learning and exploring the different links and suggested books we checked out of the library. One thing I learned after a couple of days was to have all the links ready, so that we could easily look through them. Also some of the links were very similar, so I chose the important information that would help us answer the questions.

The word-of-the-day was fun to learn and now we use words like fair dinkum and lolly in our lives.

What I Disliked: The only thing that I did not like with this unit was there was no math. I also wish that I had looked at the entire unit before I printed it out for the kids. I had to print out the pages for the lapbook again, because I originally printed double-sided. Sometimes not all of the links worked, but since the activities repeated themselves I was able to go to the different days to find links that worked.

What B Liked and Disliked: I liked the whole thing. I liked making the lapbook, because we got to use some glue. The YouTube videos were delicious. I liked learning about the poisonous sea snake and saltwater crocodile in the Magic School Bus book, Expedition Down Under. There was nothing I disliked.

What C liked and Disliked: I liked everything we did for Australia. I liked the koala the best.

Age Appeal: Grades K-4th, but I think the whole family will enjoy it

Vendor Information: The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC and Amanda Bennett, 2010; e-book, $7.95

Vendor Contact Information: www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com and www.UnitStudy.com (Amanda Bennett)

More Download N Go Series Products: Simply Soccer, Ireland, Amelia Earhart and more

Disclaimer: I received this product for free for review purposes.