butterfly113 Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 Hello hive! Don't you just love planning time?! I do! We will be using Life of Fred Fractions and Decimals and Percents next year. I know we weill complete the fractions and some of decimals/percents.... yet I am wondering how I should schedule it. We are using Singapore 4B 5A 5B as the core of our math curriculum. Life of fred is a fun extra, some glue to cement things in a fun way if you will. We will do the Singapore lessons Mon -thurs. Fridays are bonus days.... Therapy (in the fall), projects, field trips etc.... Should I schedule LOF on Fridays, or through the week... any thoughts? What has worked for you when you have use LOF? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb in NZ Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 Aim to complete 2 chapters (or a chapter & a bridge) a week. That will have you finishing both books in a year. Ds#2 uses MUS as his main curriculum, aiming to complete 1 chapter MUS weekly. He works on LoF Thursdays & Fridays, finishing 1 chapter or bridge each day. Next year I'm planning on him completing a chapter of LoF: PreAlgebra daily alongside his MUS pages. If you don't want to use my "slow & steady" approach, you could have your dc do Singapore 4B, LoF: Fractions, Singapore 5A, LoF: Decimals & Percents, Singapore 5B, etc. If you complete a chapter daily the first 2 LoF books could be finished in 6-7 weeks each. JMHO, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsiew Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 I just have ds do LOF on Fridays. But, I'm not trying to necessarily fit both books in. We do one lesson a week... it does go slow.... you might want to shoot for 2 lessons a week if you want to complete both books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetzmama Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 ds 11yo got burned out somewhere during singapore 5 (don't recall if A or B... or it may have even been 4b). We switched to LOF & he has thrived using just LOF. As an avid reader with great comprehension, and a natural love for math, Fred just seems a great fit for him. We do drills either printed or online at the MUS site or timed drills here http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/mathfact/mathFact.htm. (5 minutes of online drill is a prerequisite to any computer time). I know some folks say LOF is a great filler, but for one who gets burned out on lots of drill and theoretical explanations, Fred has been a real blessing. Just enough practice for ds to know he's 'got it' with explanations from fictional 'real life' examples. I let him work at his own pace, though he does need to score 90 on two consecutive bridges before he can move on. When that doesn't happen, we just backtrack through the chapter and spend some extra time on drill. Just for fun, I had him take the TTB online placement test when he was about 1/2 way through Fred decimals. TTB said he was ready for pre-algebra. I don't agree with that, but it did confirm to me that Fred can be stand alone if lots of extra drill are not needed (or frustrating) for certain children. That said, Fred would never work with my other 2, except as a supplement. How to schedule it would depend on how the other book scheduled the same topics. If Fred is supposed to be strictly a fun review, it would be tough the other book had not yet arrived at a certain function. Just thoughts..... Hope that doesnt' add to the confusion! Blessings... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiobrain Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 This is how I do it... cause my kids demand Fred. I do 1 Life of Fred lesson per day, coupled with 1 or a half lesson of Singapore. We do Bridges in 2 days. I usually do math 5 days a week, but I am realizing that I can cut it down to 4 and not lose sleep. FYI, I am doing Decimals & Percents and 5B, right now. I figure I will be finished by Sept. Then on to 6A and pre-algebra with biology! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starwarsmomma Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 bumping up because I was wondering the same thing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen+4dc Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 Aim to complete 2 chapters (or a chapter & a bridge) a week. JMHO, That's what we do. CLE 4 days a week and 2 chapters of LoF the 5th day. It's working beautifully for my kids who just need a fun supplement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 DS9 will be doing Singapore 4B, 5A and hopefully much of 5B this year. He will also be finishing LOF fractions and doing LOF decimals. LAst spring he did 30 minutes of LOF independently on Mondays and on days we were actually home all 4 days, we added 30 more minutes on Fridays. I'd say there was a bit of a disconnect when he'd go a week without working on it, but you really can't do 10 minutes of LOF independently so that worked ok for us and we will keep it up for now. LOF is just bonus for us anyhow. Brownie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilly Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 ds 11yo got burned out somewhere during singapore 5 (don't recall if A or B... or it may have even been 4b). We switched to LOF & he has thrived using just LOF. As an avid reader with great comprehension, and a natural love for math, Fred just seems a great fit for him. We do drills either printed or online at the MUS site or timed drills here http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/mathfact/mathFact.htm. (5 minutes of online drill is a prerequisite to any computer time). I know some folks say LOF is a great filler, but for one who gets burned out on lots of drill and theoretical explanations, Fred has been a real blessing. Just enough practice for ds to know he's 'got it' with explanations from fictional 'real life' examples. I am using LOF as the main program for my twins. I am glad to see I am not the only one! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudreyTN Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Amanda~ Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seewah Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 This is how we used LoF last year: My oldest was in Zeta (MUS) so we did MUS 4 days/week (M-TH) and then on Fridays he did a LoF lesson. He used the LoF Fractions text last year which was a review of Epsilon (the MUS book he completed the previous year). I like staggering the LoF books one year behind what he is using in his core math book ... good review, ya know? This year he will be using MUS PreAlgebra and working through LoF Decimals and Percents. We will probably move at a faster clip this year ... so my hope is to order the two LoF PreAlgebra books and have him work through both of those before moving on to Algebra next year. That is our plan and it has worked well so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterfly113 Posted August 3, 2010 Author Share Posted August 3, 2010 Those are some great suggestions! About how long does it seem to take to do one chapter? Should I plan on 15 minutes, 30 minutes??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aubrey Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 I'm calling it "Fridays with Fred" & treating it like MCT--ds works on it for a set amt of time, however many ch's he completes. But I have no experience implementing this plan. It's just a paper plan. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy loves Bud Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 Those are some great suggestions! About how long does it seem to take to do one chapter? Should I plan on 15 minutes, 30 minutes??? Yes. LOL! Some of the chapters they can zip right through in no time, others take a bit longer. It all depends on the content and how many questions are asked. We do MUS M-Th, with LOF on Friday, just like some of the others here seem to be doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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