Life of Fred and learning basic facts

[ProudGrandma]

how does LoF teach the learning of the basic math facts? Or does it? I totally get and love the story book idea to teach how math is used in everyday life, but if you don't know that 6 x 7 is 42, then you can't use mathh in everyday life. So,please someone tell me how that works, will you??? thanks.

[NittanyJen]

I assume you are talking about the elementary series, since the basics are a pre-req for the fractions book.

 

In Apples, Fred uses his colored pencils and rearranges them in different ways to make 7 (he even showed a photo of this).

 

That was great! We didn't stop there (my son is way past that one set of facts anyway).

 

I dumped out my pan of 250-odd colored pencils, and yes, we started with all the different ways to make 7 (the " number bonds" in Singapore). Then we did 12, 16, and other numbers. We played with pencils for the next month and practiced our number facts for addition (including regrouping) and subtraction, multiplication, and division.

 

Yes, we got all that out of that one photograph-- a picture says 1000 words

:001_smile:

 

When Fred suggests playing with an idea, he really does mean play with it!

 

Later, he introduces sets in the same book. Sets can be used to reinforce some number facts. Sets can also be used to introduce some basic principles of logic, which he gets into, just in a fun, non-threatening way (which sets overlap/share members? Which sets have no members in common? Get out paper and write the curly braces for set notation...). How about naming the set of the first ten multiples of six? You can play Fred games like that in the car. Are there any sets that include both a multiple of three and a multiple of four? (the set that includes the numbers 12 and 24).

 

I am always amazed when I read that there isn't much math in the elementary books. If you apply multiplication, fractions, factorials, calculus, whatever you like you can play quite a lot right there, and that is just two chapters in Apples :).

 

Later in Apples, Stan asks the child to draw a 4-sided shape that is not a rectangle. After the discussion of how/why a square is a special case of a rectangle rather than a different shape, we got to parallelograms and trapezoids, then some irregular shapes. This got us off onto more geometry (and some khan academy interest). Then some origami.

 

The clocks suggest plenty of activities to add and subtract time units, multiply different families, and are used throughout Apples. Pay attention to the questions Stan poses. He teaches you how to do a lt of it, and then you can take it from there and easily extend it.

 

Needless to say, even though he's in Singapore 3B, my 8YO is still taking his time with just LoF Apples, and getting a mix of learning and reinforcing.

 

Have fun with Fred. If you see an activity, run with it. Pay attention to Stan teaching you the basic idea, then you can run with it. It's true; after Apples, no kid should have trouble with any 7 fact, especially if you followed directions and made them write their answers down, but why limit the activities to the '7' facts? There is a reason why he wrote this series to be read in a lap and not independently, in contrast with the upper series! :). I haven't seen B--whatever yet, because we're taking our time with Apples...

 

Have fun!

[Jay3fer]

Here's a thread called Life of Fred: Where is the Teaching? where people talk about what and how kids learn through LOF. We are using Butterflies, but as a supplement only to a very workbooky mainstream math.

[ShellChelle]

 

When Fred suggests playing with an idea, he really does mean play with it!

Have fun!

 

I agree. We finished Apples before Christmas are are now around chapter 6 or 7 in Butterflies. The books appear to be simplistic and easy, but are chock full of information that gets kids thinking and expanding their knowledge base.

 

I mean, how many elementary kids can tell you who Archimedes was and how much a vigintillion is? And yes, my son took the time to write out a vigintillion with all 63 zeros on our white board the day we read about it in LOF.

 

But not being content to stop there, we ended up taking it a few steps further and defined an unvigintillion, a duovigintillion, and a tresvigintillion. There were a LOT of zeros on the board that day!

 

I love how the analog clock in integrated throughout the books, as well as continued reinforcement of skip counting and other basic facts. However, I don't know if I would still consider the elementary books as a complete curriculum. We're only on Butterflies so the jury is still out. But I use LOF as a treat for my son because he loves it so much better than the workbook-based math we also use.

[ProudGrandma]

I agree. We finished Apples before Christmas are are now around chapter 6 or 7 in Butterflies. The books appear to be simplistic and easy, but are chock full of information that gets kids thinking and expanding their knowledge base.

 

I mean, how many elementary kids can tell you who Archimedes was and how much a vigintillion is? And yes, my son took the time to write out a vigintillion with all 63 zeros on our white board the day we read about it in LOF.

 

But not being content to stop there, we ended up taking it a few steps further and defined an unvigintillion, a duovigintillion, and a tresvigintillion. There were a LOT of zeros on the board that day!

 

I love how the analog clock in integrated throughout the books, as well as continued reinforcement of skip counting and other basic facts. However, I don't know if I would still consider the elementary books as a complete curriculum. We're only on Butterflies so the jury is still out. But I use LOF as a treat for my son because he loves it so much better than the workbook-based math we also use.

 

thanks for this....I plan to use this as a supplement and not a replacement. I know my oldest will just read it and enjoy it...as will my middle child...and when my youngest gets it, we will probably read it together...but I don't know yet.

[NittanyJen]

I agree. We finished Apples before Christmas are are now around chapter 6 or 7 in Butterflies. The books appear to be simplistic and easy, but are chock full of information that gets kids thinking and expanding their knowledge base.

 

I mean, how many elementary kids can tell you who Archimedes was and how much a vigintillion is? And yes, my son took the time to write out a vigintillion with all 63 zeros on our white board the day we read about it in LOF.

 

But not being content to stop there, we ended up taking it a few steps further and defined an unvigintillion, a duovigintillion, and a tresvigintillion. There were a LOT of zeros on the board that day!

 

I love how the analog clock in integrated throughout the books, as well as continued reinforcement of skip counting and other basic facts. However, I don't know if I would still consider the elementary books as a complete curriculum. We're only on Butterflies so the jury is still out. But I use LOF as a treat for my son because he loves it so much better than the workbook-based math we also use.

 

I agree with that; I have not yet seen enough of the program to call it a complete program the way the upper level LoF program is. I am still calling the lower level program as a supplement. Maybe I am just a chicken :). But that's okay with me. Bawk bawk bawk.

[acurtis75]

I just answered your pm but will add that mus is great for learning math facts.

[ProudGrandma]

I hve no intention of stopping our use of MUS either....but I thought maybe the kids would enjoy reading LoF and then "accidently" learn something in the process.