Life of Fred for mathy second-grader?

[happypamama]

My 7yo has been working through Miquon, and I thought I'd try CSMP with him when he's done with/bored with Miquon, but now I'm looking at LoF. He's pretty mathy, and I kind of think the silliness might appeal to him. If I got some, would I want to start with the first one, or skip to the middle somewhere? If we worked the practice problems at the end of the chapters, would they be sufficient for mastering a concept, or would I need to find additional practice problems for him? If you use LoF, do you use it as a stand-alone curriculum, or do you use it as a supplement?

[Dinsfamily]

I use it as a supplement. Since I have a K'er, I started with Apples. I told ds8 that he could tag along until he was ready for Fractions. He loves them even though the math is super easy. He did the first 4 by himself and is begging for the rest and Fractions. I doubt he's learned much math, but it makes math more fun for him and that is worth it to me.

 

He is ready for Fractions now so I'm getting that for him soon and he will probably go through the other elementary books as I buy them for his brother. It will still be a supplement. In fact, it will be something he can do in his own time since we are pretty full on other curricula during school as you can see in my siggy.

[Chrysalis Academy]

My 7yo has been working through Miquon, and I thought I'd try CSMP with him when he's done with/bored with Miquon, but now I'm looking at LoF. He's pretty mathy, and I kind of think the silliness might appeal to him. If I got some, would I want to start with the first one, or skip to the middle somewhere? If we worked the practice problems at the end of the chapters, would they be sufficient for mastering a concept, or would I need to find additional practice problems for him? If you use LoF, do you use it as a stand-alone curriculum, or do you use it as a supplement?

 

I've used the whole (almost done) elementary series with my 4th grader. She loves it, and I'm glad we started with Apples even though the math was easy. It has a lot of advanced concepts introduced early on. (I'll be able to use it again with the younger, which made it worth it).

 

I would suggest getting one book and making sure it is appealing to him before investing in the whole set - some love it, some don't.

 

As far as mastering a concept with the practice problems, not so much I think. Although in the later books there is a "row of practice" along with the practice problems (which are actually part of the instruction) and starting in Honey you are instructed to make times tables flash cards and practice them every day till you memorize them. So yes, I think you could achieve mastery, but not just by using the books and the printed problems.

 

It's definitely a supplement for us. I don't know of anyone using just Fred for elementary.

 

After completing through Honey, Miss P asked if she could start doing Fractions on her own (yay!) which was the intention starting with that book. So we're finishing up Ice Cream and Jelly Beans together, and she does Fractions on her own. We do Math Mammoth as our main math, and just finished the Fractions chapter and so LOF Fractions is a great extension and reinforcement of what we just covered in MM.