What age did your child use LoF Fractions?

[crazyforlatin]

DD is 5, fluent reader, and is working on division and in about 3 months, I would like to introduce fractions to her. I know LoF is geared toward 5th graders, but I'm just wondering if others have tried to use the book with 5-6 year-olds and how it went. I know some kids here are quite accelerated in math, but DD is not in that sense. However, I think she would enjoy fractions if it were told through a story (similar to learning Spanish usingTwisted Doors). We would use LoF for fun and probably Saxon or Singapore as the base. Should I just save my money...for now?

[2smartones]

My two cents.

 

Kids don't know it's supposed to be for 5th graders. It's a story with a main character who's 5, so why not let a 5 year old read it? If she gets frustrated and lost, she can put it down. If she likes it, she'll learn something new. Age, IMHO, doesn't matter. What matters is whether or not a child is able to handle the material. I'd probably wait until you're sure she's got a grasp of both multiplication and division, but I wouldn't wait 5 more years just because everyone says so.

[nmoira]

To get the full value from the book, I'd wait until your daughter has mastered long division with multiple digit divisors (this, and knowing math facts are the only prerequisites Schmidt himself lists for starting the LoF: Fractions). If that happens at 5, great... but if not, I'd wait. The question sets are not long, but they are carefully constructed so that the students learns as much by doing as from the text. Reading the text might be interesting, but not nearly so much would be gained. Have you looked at Math Mammoth? The Blue series allows you to pick and choose topics. Its approach is similar to that of Singapore.

 

FWIW, DD the Elder did the first two Fred books at 7, after completing Singapore Primary Math through the long division unit of 4A. She didn't go back to Singapore.

Edited May 15, 2010 by nmoira
typo

[mbeaser]

My son was 9 when we discovered LOF, but he wasn't really interested in learning his times tables until I told him he couldn't do the Fractions book until he learned them :D Amazing how fast he picked them up. I agree that knowing math facts and long division would be necessary, as the publisher said. My 7yo is working hard on her math facts so that she too can get into Fred :)

[Storm Bay]

To get the full value from the book, I'd wait until your daughter has mastered long division with multiple digit divisors (this, and knowing math facts are the only prerequisites Schmidt himself lists for starting the LoF: Fractions). If that happens at 5, great... but if not, I'd wait. The question sets are not long, but they are carefully constructed so that the students learns as much by doing as from the text. Reading the text might be interesting, but not nearly so much would be gained. Have you looked at Math Mammoth? The Blue series allows you to pick and choose topics. It's approach is similar to that of Singapore.

 

FWIW, DD the Elder did the first two Fred books at 7, after completing Singapore Primary Math through the long division unit of 4A. She didn't go back to Singapore.

:iagree: My ds had already done fractions with Singapore Math before starting LOF Fractions. There is a lot more to LOF than fractions, btw, although that's the focus. There are a lot of connections the student has to make and some of the teaching happens in the Your Turn to Play questions and in the answers. So, if your 5 yo has mastered all 4 operations (+,-,* & division) and can do multiple digit division, then I'd give it a try. LoF Fractions and Decimals can count as a pre-Algebra, although LoF now also has a pre-Algebra book for dc who have done the others but aren't ready for Algebra yet.

[higginszoo]

I think that my younger ds was about 6 when I got this for my then-9 year old ds. The younger one enjoyed the story, but even though he's pretty advanced in math, the math part went completely over his head, so it had no value from that perspective. If it were just him, I would not have bothered, but I never object to the dc picking up whatever is lying around and reading it (especially that child -- he is not usually much of a reader).