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Does Life of Fred get better?


SarahW
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I think most of you super-math people hang around AL, so here's a question for all you who know math better than I (which is most you).

 

I'm in the midst of paring down our books to only a few suitcases, and taking a critical look at what I have accumulated, which is quite a lot!

 

I made the decision to get rid of the elementary LOF books. They filled a need when we first pulled CP from K, but now that we have been doing BA (which he loves) and I have been learning more about math than I thought existed, I have let Fred quietly slip away. This review pretty much sums up my current thoughts about Fred, it's rote and largely vague.

 

But I also have the Fractions and D&P books that I picked up 2nd hand for cheap. I thumbed through D&P and I just can't figure out whether to keep them. One good thing about Fred (which may be the only thing I think is good about it) is that it connects math to real world events - making a purchase, running to the nearest town for help, and etc. The other thing I saw was the Random Math and Things. CP largely liked the Random Math and Things, but, hmm, set theory wasn't explained very well (!) and I didn't know enough to fill it in, and I worry that Fractions and D&P will have more of the same confusion.

 

I think we will be continuing with AoPS. We've hit some walls in BA and have gotten through them. The county library had one AoPS book (Geometry) for my perusal, and that looks like something we could eventually do. So I had thought that Fractions and D&P could be some fun summer math to practice and get a different perspective on math. But now I'm not sure it's worth it, even as a supplement. I mean, we could just play around with AoPS more and spend our time more wisely.

 

All things considering, is it even worth to cart Fractions and D&P around the world for supplements? Is the one good thing, mundane life math, good enough? Is the Random Math any good, or just frustrating? Are the word problems in the bridges worthwhile? Or are those things that AoPS will provide anyways?

 

I should note that CP does like Fred, but I think he may now like Grogg more, so....

 

Talk me into keeping Fred. Or tell me pull the trigger and sell them. I can't decide.

 

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The middle school books don't get better.  We stopped halfway through the economics book because I couldn't stand the commentary about how wonderful unfettered capitalism is.  We haven't used the high school books.

 

ETA: And I should mention that the math doesn't get better either.

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The middle school books don't get better.  We stopped halfway through the economics book because I couldn't stand the commentary about how wonderful unfettered capitalism is.  We haven't used the high school books.

 

ETA: And I should mention that the math doesn't get better either.

 

I had heard that about Pre-A, and was planning to stop before that point. For one thing, my Green-Left DH would rage.

 

Math doesn't get better...meaning it's just as bad. That's a good solid vote for the sell pile. Thanks!

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I would sell them. In fact, I did sell all mine. :lol:

 

I originally bought them because I had a kid who was convinced he hated math. They helped him recover from that affliction because they are fun. However, we use really high quality math resources here (Miquon, Singapore, BA/AoPs, Jacobs/Foerster, and numerous other supplements), and the deeper we got with those, the more we all realized that there is a big difference between the fun of puzzling through challenging problems (deeply meaningful and rewarding to the ego) and the fun of reading about a young tyke of a professor in silly situations who happened to teach a little math (just fun, on a superficial level). The math is just not taught at a level that helped LoF make the cut as my kids starting getting older and I had to start getting real and making cuts.

 

Oldest DS (the aforementioned math hater) was Fred's biggest fan but was happy to give him the heave-ho around the time he was introduced to Mathematics: A Human Endeavor, aka "my fun math." My other two followed suit.

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Have you asked CP what he thinks (explaining that you have limited space to pack)?

 

I don't have Fractions, nor Decimals and Percents. I have Apples-Jelly Beans, and Beginning Algebra and Advanced Algebra. I like Fred. But if you don't think the elementary books were worth it, I don't think that's going to change much for the rest.

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We sold ours to the homeschool store and then bought our history cards. The history cards get far more use and at least they are rote memorization of something like dates and events rather than memorizing of something aimed at problem solving. If your student doesn't find Fred's humor cute, then that is basically all there is. Some kids really like the "voice" in the books since most math books do not have much of any personality. As far as I can tell, that is the major selling point.

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We have Fred for the same reason as alte veste; I took dd9 (then 8) our of PS and started her on Saxon, and after a couple of months we were both ready to just quit math permanently out of boredom.  Fred brought the joy back to math, and the sense of scope.  We've moved on but I'm keeping them all just in case :)  I'd sell if I didn't have lots of younger kids, though.  (Or just give away).

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If you own it, I would pack Zaccaro and HoE instead ;)

 

Don't own them, except the free HoE app.

 

I do have....Math for Smarty Pants. I think I'll take that, hmm, I don't really enjoy math, so that's something I have to muster up enthusiasm to work through with him. Or wait a little bit and tell him to do it by himself.  :tongue_smilie:

 

 

Ok, so here's the thing, p. 157 of D&P there's a note that you should memorize arithmetic, but all higher math is (or should be) open book because...if you're an engineer solving an indefinite integral, you'll just look up the answer in the Table of Integrals book on your shelf. Really? IDK, I'm not an engineer. But that sort of mentality is one that I reject. Not that all books need to align 100% with my own philosophy, but if there's no positives to outweigh the negatives...what's the point? 

 

I think I'm selling them. Making money off something I think is worthless! Score one for unfettered capitalism!  :lol:

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Not really, but DD loves Fred. I think he's the little brother she wishes she had. We buy them just as fun supplemental reading material. So far, I haven't gotten the chance to resell them :).

 

I love how Fred is such an asynchronously developing kid. Obviously not a real one - it's over the top. But it's okay to be great at math, worse at drawing than your doll is, and to not have enough world experience (due to age) to fall for swindlers selling you broken heaters etc. Not enough books feature asynchronously developing kids.

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Fred is a fun supplement for little dd here.  She loves Fred so much.  :)  My boys did and enjoyed the Fractions book as a supplement.  So for us, Fred has been a worthwhile and fun supplement, and Fred has helped my math-phobic dd gather up courage to try some things she would ordinarily not try.  It has always been a secondary program.  We use a lot of supplements when needed.  Fred is a welcome addition to this list.

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No it doesn't get better. We've only done Fractions on, but I find the teaching non-existent to horrific. I really like the Bridge problem sets though as they connect math to the real-ish world. Ds loves the speed of a single chapter. Five to ten problems can be done with no complaining at all. But if these books were the only exposure to math concepts a child will have then I'd burn them before I'd resale them. ;). Their single saving grace is that DS will do the chapters happily with no complaints. (Sometimes up to four chapters in one sitting.) I think they are a good review book if child has already had concepts somewhere else but needs more review.

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Agreed, they don't get better.   I sold all my Elementary books and need to sell the rest.  

 

ETA: In all fairness, I should have said that they served their purpose at the time - a math-averse kid coming out of ps was rehabilitated using Fred.  My younger, who has had better math instruction from the beginning, was underwhelmed by Fred however, and didn't want to use them.  For PreA and up, there just seem to be so many better options out there.

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My daughter enjoyed D&P for the story, but I found that she wasn't retaining very much.

 

Then I came across a problem that went, "Darlene decided to lose weight so she would look nice for Joe. She started out at 118 pounds and lost 10% of her body weight. How much did she weigh afterward?"

 

Uh, NO. I wrote to the author expressing my belief that it's hard enough to raise a daughter with a healthy body image without getting negative messages from MATH BOOKS. He wrote back explaining that Darlene is not someone that children are supposed to approve of, so there's no negative message in the problem. That didn't satisfy me.

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My daughter enjoyed D&P for the story, but I found that she wasn't retaining very much.

 

Then I came across a problem that went, "Darlene decided to lose weight so she would look nice for Joe. She started out at 118 pounds and lost 10% of her body weight. How much did she weigh afterward?"

 

Uh, NO. I wrote to the author expressing my belief that it's hard enough to raise a daughter with a healthy body image without getting negative messages from MATH BOOKS. He wrote back explaining that Darlene is not someone that children are supposed to approve of, so there's no negative message in the problem. That didn't satisfy me.

 

The author is full of opinions.

 

Isn't Darlene one of the only ones (besides Fred) who has any sense?  

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We have taught a lot of critical thinking and "the author's opinions are just that-opinions. Just because someone is good at math does not make him an expert on X (finance, biology, chemistry, physics, language arts, relationships between Joe and Darlene, how a 5 yr old boy would really act, how military drafts work, what international missionary teachers do....) " via Fred.  That's not a bad thing to learn, and LOF is SO over the top that it makes differentiating opinion pretty darned easy.  And they served a purpose for DD in that they provided a bridge between workbook math and working from a book in a separate notebook/organizing papers with very nice, friendly, bite-sized problem sets.  But there's a reason why we did 2 years of pre-algebra. I don't think Fred, alone, would have been sufficient, although I have noticed that DD still uses and finds the pretty little boxes useful.

 

I think LOF has a place for the highly asynchronous kid who is dying for high school math, but still finds Captain Underpants hilarious.  I think an on-level high school kid would find them frustrating. And I don't think the man has any place writing an LA book!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We use them for similar reasons to dmmetler. Dd loves to read and I started using Fred when she went through a stage where she hated math. This happened while learning long division in mus delta I believe. She could do the problems but was bored and tired of the repetition. She started doing Fred, living math books and eventually Beast Academy to provide some interesting math to counteract the boring repetition. She now likes math, even mentioned potentially studying it in college but enjoys using all the different resources. I never check her Fred problems. She works through it on her own and likes to read the books for fun so I won't sell them but don't really consider it a part of our official curriculum.

.

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My daughter enjoyed D&P for the story, but I found that she wasn't retaining very much.

 

Then I came across a problem that went, "Darlene decided to lose weight so she would look nice for Joe. She started out at 118 pounds and lost 10% of her body weight. How much did she weigh afterward?"

 

Uh, NO. I wrote to the author expressing my belief that it's hard enough to raise a daughter with a healthy body image without getting negative messages from MATH BOOKS. He wrote back explaining that Darlene is not someone that children are supposed to approve of, so there's no negative message in the problem. That didn't satisfy me.

 

WTF? That's horrific.

 

(I'm sorry, but this deserves that "F.")

 

ETA: We've only read through the elementary books, but I despise Fred, and my DS loves him. We've always thought of him as our little Alex P Keaton, so it didn't surprise me. :lol:

 

I REALLY don't want to buy anymore, but DS is asking for them.  :glare:

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My daughter enjoyed D&P for the story, but I found that she wasn't retaining very much.

 

Then I came across a problem that went, "Darlene decided to lose weight so she would look nice for Joe. She started out at 118 pounds and lost 10% of her body weight. How much did she weigh afterward?"

 

Uh, NO. I wrote to the author expressing my belief that it's hard enough to raise a daughter with a healthy body image without getting negative messages from MATH BOOKS. He wrote back explaining that Darlene is not someone that children are supposed to approve of, so there's no negative message in the problem. That didn't satisfy me.

Shocking!

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