Life of Fred Fractions ?

[Surfside Academy]

I'm considering using this as a supplement for my son this summer. He just finished MUS Delta and will be moving into Epsilon (fractions) this next school year. I'm very happy with MUS but I was thinking LOF might be a good preview for the upcoming school year. He's a bit of a reluctant reader so I like both the math and reading practice with LOF. He's going into 4th grade but he has a late birthday so he's an older 4th grader (10 in the fall.) I saw that LOF was listed as a middle grades curriculum but I was on their site and saw the previews and the reading doesn't look above his level. Any thoughts or experiences would be much appreciated!

 

I should add that he's fairly strong at math but I'm wondering if it would be good to start now or maybe wait a little??

Edited May 15, 2010 by Surfside Academy

[Twingles]

I am currently doing LOF fractions with my 11 yr old twins. They are doing great and LOVING it.

[rafiki]

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[Suzannah]

I would say 10 isn't necessarily too young for LOF: Fractions. However the next one, Decimals & Percents is more challenging that Fractions. The story is so engaging though, and the lessons are in nice, bite-sized pieces. I think just about any age could get something from it. If he doesn't actually master Fractions from it, just have him read it again. We love Fred here.

 

Blessings!

[Matryoshka]

I don't think 10 is too young for LOF Fractions. I used it with my older two after they finished Singapore 4b, and they had just turned 10.

 

My younger dd is now finishing up 4b, and I'm planning on having her go through it this summer, and she won't be 10 till Dec.

[robsiew]

My 9 y/o (10 in fall as well) is using it now with MUS Epsilon. I do use MUS first though to introduce the concepts then we work in Fred. We are only on the first bridge in Fred and we're on lesson 11 in Epsilon. My goal is for Fred to be a review of sorts.... further cementing in the concepts. I don't know that I would use Fred to actually teach the concepts first.

 

We have found Epsilon to be true to it's reputation. This is the first book I haven't liked. However, ds is doing fine (he's mathy).

 

We've only been doing Fred once a week, but I may pick up that speed a little in the summer... more Fred, less MUS for summer... not sure yet.

[Maureen]

I think Life of Fred Fractions and Decimals and Percents are better as review books rather than first time exposure. Later on, the higher books seem to be OK on their own, but it might be frustrating to move through the concepts so quickly in the beginnning Freds. It also depends on your child's math savvy. I have one child that tends to read too quickly and misses bridge questions because he doesn't take his time going through the material to really absorb it.

 

All in all, we love Fred here.

[radiobrain]

This might be totally whacked.... but I ended up reading the story only out loud to my boys, in both Fractions & decimals books. My 11 yo also read them on his own. Then we did the book. We just finished Fractions, with all the math and the bridges included. We will do the decimals book after we have finished 5A in about month, as a summer project.

 

They did have *some* work with fractions from singapore first, and I also did some pages of the key to fractions books. Well, we just went back to singapore (both are halfway through the 5A book) and they totally have it. They are also finally seeing WHY they need to memorize the time tables! I prefer when they see the need vs. mom says so. They are working on that every day.

 

So, you can be successful doing a fast read-thru of the story, then do it again. :D

[brownie]

DS9 is using is successfully...while also using singapore. It assumes long division and 2x2 digit division. I don't know what your curriculum covers when. We had the long division but I had to quickly teach the multiplication because we were ahead of it in Singapore by a month or 2.

Brownie