Sunday, February 14, 2010

When I grow up I want to be a Firefigher! (TOSHC Review)

In the next few posts you'll see me switching things up a bit. 
I have partnered with The Old Schoolhouse (TOS) Homeschool Crew to review a few homeschool products. 
I'm thrilled to 'share the wealth' with you
.....as well as to try out new learning tools with our kids!

The Old Schoolhouse is a 'MUST READ' magazine in the homeschooling world.....but they also have a fantastic storefront with a constant influx of new materials. 
The list of Freebies is ever changing, making TOS a favorite stop on my homeschool resource list.

First up, we checked out their E-book 'When I grow up I want to be a Firefighter!'

This unit study could not have come at a better time since we will be visiting a firehouse this semester. 
I usually like to put together a unit study before a family field trip, but this time I was saved from all the leg work!  I was super impressed with the information packed into these 70+ pages.  Not only did we learn about the day-to-day life of a modern-day Firefighter...the packed-out booklet took us back through the history of firefighting and broke out the information into science, math and language arts lessons.  Some of our favorite topics were the descriptions of a bucket brigade, the use of robotics in firefighting and the current salaries of Firefighters nationwide.  For a topic this familiar, our boys were surprised at how much more they could learn about these heroes!

And Oh, the simplicity of it all....using the booklet was easy.  Each day we sat down and read a new section from the book.  The kids colored the coloring pages while I read. 
Next, we'd follow up with a couple of the activities included to reinforce our reading.  Our second grader enjoyed the math problems that covered everything from bar graphing to multiplication and averaging.  For our Kindergartner there was copywork, a fill-in-the-story script and tons of games for us to play.   This series is recommended for ages 4-10, and I agree wholeheartedly!  Though I'd extend that age range up to the 30s...(ahem) since even I learned a great deal. Without purchasing anything else, we were able to dive into firefighting and come away feeling informed! 

What little boy hasn't dreamt of becoming a firefighter?  Now our kids know more of what they'd be getting into.   I can't wait for the kids to take their new knowledge to the firehouse!  I'm praying they'll be bold enough to talk about all that they learned.

'When I grow up I want to be a Firefighter!' is offered for $7.95, and I think it's affordable enough that I'll be recommending this e-book to our Co-op, so the other kids can prep for our trip!   It's so nice to have everything from activities to history lessons all laid out for you instead of scouring the library, or the internet for resources.  When it comes to supplemental units in our schooling, who has time for all that?  Besides, I trust TOS to provide quality information at an accessible cost. 

If you are interested in the 'TOS WannaBe' series; check out these books as well:

I personally love e-books for their easy storage.  I have enough booklets crowding our shelves.  Once I download an e-book file, it is mine to keep and print out at my leisure.....No running to make copies or ruining the original materials!  Of course each purchase is copyrighted...so no sharing...no matter how easy it may be!  But at that price, TOS makes it easy to snatch up a book for your own family!

So that about raps it up for my first review....let me know what you think in the comment section!
And check out more excellent TOS products here.

2 comments:

Stef said...

Nikki - this is awesome! I'm going to email you and ask you more about materials you use!!!

Jenn said...

Congratulations!!!!!!! That is awesome! You are going to have so much fun. Give Heidi a big kiss for me. :D