Carrollton author Beverly Bruemmer may have retired from education after 33 years, but she hasn’t given up her life’s work educating children.

Bruemmer, along with fellow writers Diana Black of Marietta and A.D. Pickle of Waco, are currently marketing a comprehensive bus safety education program to school systems based on a children’s book they co-wrote. The trio later added several multimedia teaching tools that reinforce 10 bus safety rules.

“To School, To School in the Big Yellow Bus” is geared toward students Pre-K-3rd grade, using visual, audio and hands-on resources to ensure retention of the most important school bus safety rules as determined by their research and discussions with school transportation officials.

The idea originated when Black and Bruemmer, both members of the Carrollton Creative Writer’s Club, were at Carrollton’s Mayfest in 2008 when Carrollton City Schools Transportation Director Skip Veljkov happened by to talk to Bruemmer. After seeing some illustrations of the “Alfred the Moose” character Black had done for one of Bruemmer’s children’s books, Veljkov’s wife said they should work on something for school bus safety.

“One thing just led to another and here we are,” Black said.

Black, Bruemmer and Pickle’s original offering consisted of the children’s book featuring Alfred the Moose with a few activities for children to reinforce the rules, but they have since used Bruemmer’s education background to develop a variety of supplemental teaching ads and multimedia resources to make the innovative school bus safety program as comprehensive and engaging as possible for students.

“We just wanted to formulate a program that might save a child’s life or help a bus driver in getting a child home safely,” Bruemmer said.

“It’s my philosophy that if you reach a child at a young age, those good habits are instilled in a child’s mind forever and he will want to be the best he can be. It’s not difficult to follow rules once it is ingrained in you in Pre-K that this is what you’re supposed to do when you’re on the school bus.”

“To School, To School in the BIG Yellow Bus” includes: a colorful, sturdy 48-page book with story and activity pages that explicitly address school bus safety rules; a CD containing the audio book, a sing-along song, teacher lesson plans and skill pages to reinforce student proficiency; a DVD with 10 5-minute video segments addressing the 10 school bus safety rules; a coloring book containing the 10 school bus safety rules; and a coloring/activity book addressing emergency evacuation rules. Skill pages incorporated into the program also enhance teachers’ education guidelines in other academic subjects, such as reading, language arts, math, social studies, art and music.

“Alfred the Moose is a lovable character,” Black said. “So, it’s a good little way to present the material to children so they can stay engaged while they’re learning the rules.”

Bruemmer added that it is also important that parents work on the activities alongside their children because they may learn a thing or two about school bus safety they may have forgotten along the way. In today’s fast-paced society, often adults get in too big a hurry and may not always pay attention to the stop signs on the side of a stopped bus or wait for the children to get away safely, but if parents see the rules and their importance while working with their own child it could save a life one day.

“Parents need to be aware of these buses with those stop signs out and not be in such a hurry,” Bruemmer said. “Stop and let these children get across safely. The adults that also need to be aware of these rules because they’re so important.”

The trio are marketing the book through a limited liability corporation they started called TPW Resources, which is dedicated to providing innovative resources to enable adults and children to reach their full potential. They plan to build on their bus safety program by offering character education programs to school systems in the future.

The authors’ goal for the bus safety program is to get it placed in local school systems and eventually expand its reach into school systems across the state and the nation. They have already made presentations to some of the Regional Educational Services Agencies (RESAs) charged with shaping curriculum in the Atlanta area.

“When we first started we thought we could go national right of way, but, of course, you learn as you go that it’s step by step,” Black said. “We feel like with the products that we have right now if we can get that first one real excited then we’ll know we’re on the right track. Children’s safety is so important that we want to make sure we’re going about this correctly.”

Educators who would like more information on “To School, To School in the Big Yellow Bus” can go to the Web site www.tpwresources.com.