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Life of Fred standalone curriculum


lazzaroni
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Anyone out there use LOF as their only math curriculum? We use Singapore but we also supplement with Fred. We are almost finished with the elementary series. My ds loves Fred amd really seems to be retaining the info much better than with anything previous. But I am just not convinced that it is enough. I know you are supposed to reread the series but that seems - well boring. I am in an LOF group on FB and they have many success stories of Life with just Fred. How about any of you? Please no Fred bashing as I am well aware of the love/hate relationship some may have. I really want to limit this to do you use it alone and have you had success doing so? Thanks in advance!

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When we felt we needed to add more because DD wasn't retaining some things (like memorizing her times tables) we picked up MM dark blue. she hated it, and then I found Khan Academy.

 

Khan for extra practice in things that need reinforcement + Fred to keep her moving into new material was a good combo for her.

 

And Khan Academy, of course, is free.

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Yes, we have used Fred alone and yes, we have had success with it. But, that was not with the Elementary series. We have used from Fractions up without supplementation with no problems. I have since used the Elementary series with another student and wouldn't personally be happy with just using that. There is so much more out there to explore. I combined it with Miquon and found that to be a good combination, but I was working with an older remedial student and have no experience with using the Elementary series with a younger student.

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We are almost finished the elementary series of LOF and are still doing SM 3B. We did the Honey Cards as directed in LOF and it was enough for my DD who does know all her multiplication facts now, but there are many concepts like graphing and powers that she will need a lot more practice with.

 

I have also found that I prefer her using the bar methods in SM to solve more complex word problems although she does also know how to use the smaller numbers theory presented in LOF. I have also found that while my DD handled the long division fine in LOF she does need more practice with this as moving from multiplication facts and then multi digit multiplication along with division all in a very short space of time went too fast and she needs more practice with this.

 

On top of this my DD does practice olympiad Math questions and has taken part in some since this type of questioning sometimes requires out the box thinking beyond what is offered in all the curricula we do and we do some of the more challenging questions in MEP too again to expose her to other types of questioning and problem solving. :) - I don't think I could ever use any curriculum as a stand alone.

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Can you read a few chapters of LOF a week, do the "play along" section, and call it elementary math? No, not in my opinion. But can you read a chapter, drill some facts, play a math game related to the lesson, create "labs" like in Miquon, continue the conversation through the week, and do math projects from time to time and call it elementary math? Sure.

 

I think Fred can be an "only" math curriculum if the parent/teacher is really comfortable with teaching math and has the interest, time, and energy to be bringing in lots of supplementary games, drill, conversations, practice ect. But then I'm not sure if it counts as your curriculum so much as your jumping off point for your parent-created curriculum, kwim?

 

Both my kids LOVE Fred. LOVE him. But I just plain don't have the energy to flesh it out enough.

 

We do 1-3 chapters a week. But even at that slowish pace we go through three books a year and will have to go back and start over before they are old enough for Fractions. So I think you'll need to re-read no matter what way you cut it. They are designed to be re-read.

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When we felt we needed to add more because DD wasn't retaining some things (like memorizing her times tables) we picked up MM dark blue. she hated it, and then I found Khan Academy.

 

Khan for extra practice in things that need reinforcement + Fred to keep her moving into new material was a good combo for her.

 

And Khan Academy, of course, is free.

 

Yes, I think they complement eachother well, too.

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