Semiserious Chefs

Six year old Nathan has had it in mind to become a firefighter for several years now, so I am going to run with it! As an Alaskan homeschooling family we have the ability to create our own learning plans and this year I decided to incorporate his dreams into his learning. I felt that there were two parts to the job of being a firefighter; the “Fire” part and the “Rescue” part. Here in Anchorage in particular our Firefighters are also the trained EMTs that man our ambulances. What I have listed below covers the Elementary Firefighter Skills that we have been learning. If you want to also or instead incorporate Elementary First Responder Skills (1st Aid, CPR, and such) into your school year I have also laid out a full year, 7 unit study with it’s own home page.

As far as our schedule for all of this, we always do reading, writing, and math on a school day, then 2 days a week we spend about 20 minutes on Firefighter Skills and 2 days we learn First Responder Skills. Our Fridays are reserved for “the fun stuff and projects.” If you’d like more about how we are doing homeschool as a whole this year, including our other subjects, and the whys and whats… I have that also written up on the Beginning Homeschool Year 2017-18 page.

Now about this Elementary Firefighter Skills learning… Before we go any farther it is worth mentioning that this is not your average class. But I’m going to assume that if you are really looking into this for your family than you are probably not your average homeschooling parent! (Not that there is an average.) I would say, although I am working through it with a 6 year old, this learning plan would probably be better suited for kids around 4th to 8th grade. However, if you have stumbled here because you have a young budding fireman who is 100% in and gung-ho about it than, age regardless, you have come to the right place!

Although there are several child age books sprinkled throughout, the major resource for the learning for the entire year is 1200 page adult level Firefighter Skills book. Obviously we will not be reading all of those pages, but there is a ton of reading to your child involved. As you look through the outline for each unit I do list specific pages, but often it will say ‘parts of page ___.’ You’re going to need to at least skim through these pages to decide what will be good to either read in full to your child, to read briefly, or to simply paraphrase and teach in your own words.

This curriculum has a huge amount of discussion-style learning. I think we all know by now that in order to teach something well the teacher needs to know the subject matter themselves. You will probably find that this class will be no different. You might just have to read through everything ahead of time to get an understanding before you can break it down for a younger child. However, it could be that you and child will be learning together, which is quite often the case with me, even having pre-read most of it already in making a game-plan.

Elementary Firefighter Skills Books:

I’m not going to lie, these two books are not cheap. I ordered ours on Amazon used and “The Fundamentals of Fire Fighter Skills”  was still around $75. Was it worth it? 100%!! We use it nearly everyday with this curriculum. It is an OUTSTANDING resource and one that your child can carry with them into adulthood if they do end up pursuing a career as a firefighter. It is an actual adult study guide.

Basically this entire curriculum is based off the contents page of these two books. As mentioned above, when you go through each individual unit you will see that I have highlighted the specific pages to go with each. However, you will want to read through each of those individual pages and see what will be age appropriate to read and explain to your child[ren,] as I usually have it listed as ‘parts of page ___.’

Although the books above are the grunt of our learning, this is the book that started it all. I stumbled across it at the library and was excited to discover the early sections that teach about some skills a firefighter will need. This book is a particularly good resource for it’s sections on the physical requirements for being a Firefighter, with suggestions about what to expect and how to train for the CPAT, (Candidate Physical Abilities Test,) even if you have no specialized equipment. P.E. anyone?

It is also a fantastic review resource, as it is otherwise just a book full of tests.

If your child is older there is quite a bit about test taking and interviewing skills. As I said with the fundamentals book, if your child ends up pursing a career as a firefighter this very cheap book will prove to be an invaluable resource, even then.

Now, I don’t want to call the rest of these books ‘filler,’ but sometimes you need a story, or living books as so often mentioned in homeschooling, to flesh things out. I bought ‘Fighting Fire,‘ ‘Fire!’ and ‘A Day in the Life of a Firefighter‘ used at a local bookstore for very cheap. The other two I borrowed from the library. Basically with some of these books Nathan can practice his reading with a subject matter he particularly likes, and with others we just take a break from what can be rather intensive discussion learning and get to enjoy a short story for the day instead. The book here on the right was just fun to look through, with lots of photos of different apparatus.

You can use my suggestions here, but it would be just as easy to see what you have available at your own local store or library and fill-in accordingly. We all now how many billions of options there are out there!

 

Other Resources:

The next resource I suggest, we all know. YouTube. It’s free. It’s fun. It’s endless. Check out videos that go along with the subject matter of each unit. Look up kids your child’s age participating in firefighting activities and play. Lastly, as you build on the details of firefighting, find good videos that include the Incident Command Radio chatter, and follow along with each step of a fire and rescue response.

And then of-c0urse, we all know you can and should visit your local fire station. A city station will be open all day, and unless they are responding, my experience has been that the fireman love to show-off their truck and talk with children. Going regularly will help your child build a relationship with the crews, and you will ALWAYS learn something new. It doesn’t have to be a long visit, either. Just stop in, show off your kid’s gear if they want, ask a few questions about what your are currently learning, and maybe bring them some ice-cream as a thanks for their time. If your town has a volunteer department you may need to contact them for specifically scheduled visit.

As much as this may feel invasive, fireman are usually really passionate about their service and proud to share, but also they are technically owned by ‘the people,’ as public servants, so when you say the nearest station is ‘your’ station, you are in-fact correct! PS – You can’t deny that Mommies and Daddies love learning about firetrucks just as much as the kids do!

With that, my last piece of advice would be to network. Ask around for fireman (volunteer or career) within your social circle who may be able to spend some one-on-one time with your child[ren]. Like I said, firefighters (structural or wild land) are usually VERY proud of their position and would probably have no problem making time with your family. Facebook is also a great place to look as they will almost ALWAYS have a photo with their truck or uniform to identify their pride by and you can private message any stranger/soon-to-be-fireman-buddy to get acquainted. Besides, take it from me, (and look us up on YouTube if you want proof,) it can come with some real cool perks for your kids. (Think, “Real hand-me-down gear.”)

Besides just fireman and fire stations, the Dispatch Center or local Training Ground can be places to learn. If you are also doing the EMT/First Responder Medical Skills to go with it than Ambulances, Labs, and places like a Dialysis Center or Blood Blank can be great field trip locations. The world is your oyster if you simply have the bravery ask and some creativity to go with it.

A few notes about dealing with ILPs:
Getting Human Anatomy and 1st Aid listed as the Science on Nathan’s ILP for the year was no problem. Getting Firefighter Skills listed for Social Studies or Technology? She wouldn’t buy it. (<—- Even though there is a ton of each within!) Oh well, that was totally fine because we had enough subjects listed that this training simple became ‘off-the-books.’ If you aren’t part of a homeschool group or have to do an ILP than you can ignore all of that together. If you do need to have social studies listed as a class I might suggest picking through the units and pulling out a few parts within it to list, such as ‘Map skills’ or ‘Community Helpers.’ I’m sure you could find at least one semester of SS to officially cover.

As far as getting that expensive Fundamentals book paid for, there is a chapter on burns within, so we were able to get the cost of this particular book conveniently funded to us under our Science Class: Anatomy and 1st Aid.

If you have decided to pursue this learning or something like it with your child[ren] please share! Drop us a comment about what is working for you and/or how you changed things up to meet your own family’s needs. Please share the story of your budding fireman with us! Our kids have a lot in common!