Life of Fred

[Guest Francie in CA]

Well, all I have heard is Life of Fred is fun and easy and the kids love the books. We started Beginning Algebra and did fine until Chapter 3. The distance questions are making me cry. They just don't have enough explanation. We can do the problem after it is written down but reading the story problem and knowing what to write down is the problem. I have gone over it and over again. Tears come to my eyes everytime. I had my husband (with a Master's degree) look at it and he said, " I don't know how to do that ", and proceded to ignore me. I really want to get these problems because they do keep coming back in each review. Any help or where to go for help?

Thanks,

Francie in tears

[Pata]

Francie--

 

So sorry that math has brought you all to tears. I don't have Life of Fred because we are not there yet, could you post the problem and maybe one of us can explain it?

[Guest Francie in CA]

There are many but here goes:

 

Joe was getting ready for duck hunting season. He asked Darlene to throw her favorite plastic flying saucer into the air, which she did at 21 ft/sec. Two seconds later, Joe blasted at it with his favorite shotgun. The pellets from the gun traveled at 1000 ft/sec. How long did it take the pellets to hit the saucer?

 

Two bull elephants are 2 miles apart and they charge toward each other in a mad testosterone rage. The bigger one charges at 45 mph and the littler one moves at 15 mph. How soon before they collide?

 

It takes 175 seconds for Sergeant Snow to walk from his room to the Waddles Doughnut franchise store and back to his room. Going there, he walks a 3ft/second, and on the way back he zooms along at 4ft/sec. How long did it take him to walk to the store.

[Deece in MN]

Well, all I have heard is Life of Fred is fun and easy and the kids love the books. We started Beginning Algebra and did fine until Chapter 3. The distance questions are making me cry. They just don't have enough explanation. We can do the problem after it is written down but reading the story problem and knowing what to write down is the problem. I have gone over it and over again. Tears come to my eyes everytime. I had my husband (with a Master's degree) look at it and he said, " I don't know how to do that ", and proceded to ignore me. I really want to get these problems because they do keep coming back in each review. Any help or where to go for help?

Thanks,

Francie in tears

 

:grouphug: Oh, I understand what you are going through. My ds is on lesson 43 or 44 of Beginning Algebra and he tripped a bit on these problems and I had to help him through them. One thing you can do is email the author. He is very good about responding and helping your work through the problems.

 

Also, do you have the Home Companion book? This will give a little extra practice and sometimes a bit more explanation. Also, in the lessons to follow these types of problems will be reviewed through the your turn to play and the city reviews.

 

As the pp suggested, you could post a problem that you are having trouble with and we can try to help you out.

 

But, really, email the author as he is very helpful. :)

[Sunshine State Sue]

It takes 175 seconds for Sergeant Snow to walk from his room to the Waddles Doughnut franchise store and back to his room. Going there, he walks a 3ft/second, and on the way back he zooms along at 4ft/sec. How long did it take him to walk to the store.

 

x=distance to store

x(3ft/sec) + x(4ft/sec) = 175sec

x(3ft/sec+4ft/sec) = 175sec

x(7ft/sec) = 175sec

x = 175sec / 7ft/sec

x = 25ft

 

We just started LoF Algebra 1 this week. I've never heard that it's easy. I have heard that it's fun. Stop scaring me please. ;)

[Sunshine State Sue]

Two bull elephants are 2 miles apart and they charge toward each other in a mad testosterone rage. The bigger one charges at 45 mph and the littler one moves at 15 mph. How soon before they collide?

An easy way to look at this is that the big one is travelling 3x the speed of the little one. Therefore, he will cover 3x as much ground. So, the big one will cover 3/4 x 2miles and the little one will cover 1/4 x 2miles.

 

The little one travels at 15mph - that's 1 mile each 4 minutes. He covers 1/4 x 2miles = 1/2 mile in 2 minutes.

 

Am I right? I'm awfully rusty.

[Deece in MN]

There are many but here goes:

 

Joe was getting ready for duck hunting season. He asked Darlene to throw her favorite plastic flying saucer into the air, which she did at 21 ft/sec. Two seconds later, Joe blasted at it with his favorite shotgun. The pellets from the gun traveled at 1000 ft/sec. How long did it take the pellets to hit the saucer?

 

Two bull elephants are 2 miles apart and they charge toward each other in a mad testosterone rage. The bigger one charges at 45 mph and the littler one moves at 15 mph. How soon before they collide?

 

 

It takes 175 seconds for Sergeant Snow to walk from his room to the Waddles Doughnut franchise store and back to his room. Going there, he walks a 3ft/second, and on the way back he zooms along at 4ft/sec. How long did it take him to walk to the store.

 

Ok, the first one I will have to get back to you about. :) My ds emailed the author and he sent an explanation and I don't remember it.

 

The second example follows the formula d=rt easier. The d is 2 miles and the r is the speed of both elephants and t is the variable. So you would set this up as 45t+15t=2. You then add the 45t and the 15t so you have 60t=2. Divide both sides by 60 and you have 2/60 of an hour or 2 minutes.

 

Here is the third one. They gave the hint to let t=the time it takes to walk to the store. His rate while walking to the store is 3 ft/sec. So you start with 3t=. Now the other side of the equation is the time it took him to walk back home. The rate he walked home was 4 ft/sec. and the time is 175-t because we know that 175 secs is the total time it took to walk there and back and t is representing the time to walk there. So, now our equation looks like 3t=4(175-t). You distribute out the 4 to the 175 and the t and you have 3t=700-4t. Now, add 4t to both sides and you have 7t=700. Then, divide both sides by 7 and you have t=100 so it took 100 seconds for him to walk to the store.

 

I hope this helps some. When my ds gets home I will have him look up the first problem. This one stumped both of us. After I read the author's explanation it made sense, but it has been a while now and I don't remember how to do it. Sorry.

[Deece in MN]

x=distance to store

x(3ft/sec) + x(4ft/sec) = 175sec

x(3ft/sec+4ft/sec) = 175sec

x(7ft/sec) = 175sec

x = 175sec / 7ft/sec

x = 25ft

 

We just started LoF Algebra 1 this week. I've never heard that it's easy. I have heard that it's fun. Stop scaring me please. ;)

 

Actually, they are looking for the time it took to walk to the store not the distance so the equation will be set up different. I posted below the equation for this one. ETA: I guess I should say I posted above as this post shows up below my other one. :)

[Sunshine State Sue]

One thing you can do is email the author. He is very good about responding and helping your work through the problems.

 

In fact, I think the author says he prefers that the student email him because he believes the parent will just give them the answer. :)

[Deece in MN]

In fact, I think he says he prefers that the student email him because he believes the parent will just give them the answer. :)

 

Yes, he does. He also tries to give hints or to lead the student towards the answer without necessarily giving it away. I really like that. :)

[Deece in MN]

There are many but here goes:

 

Joe was getting ready for duck hunting season. He asked Darlene to throw her favorite plastic flying saucer into the air, which she did at 21 ft/sec. Two seconds later, Joe blasted at it with his favorite shotgun. The pellets from the gun traveled at 1000 ft/sec. How long did it take the pellets to hit the saucer?

 

Ok, I just figured this one out on my own. I couldn't move on to anything else until I had done so. :)

Anyway, t=time it took the pellets to reach the saucer. So, you have 21(rate she threw the saucer) times (t+2) which is the time plus the 2 second delay and this equals 1000 (rate the pellets traveled) times t which looks like this: 21(t+2)=1000t. First, distribute the 21 to the t and the 2 so you have 21t+42=1000t. Then, subtract the 21t from both sides so you have 42=979t. Next, divide both sides by 979 and you have t=42/979 seconds.

 

I don't know if this made good sense. I would still have your child email the author for his assistance. HTH :)

[Sophia]

and both of us would disagree on the "easy" description.

It's plenty challenging and if you haven't ordered the companion yet, I would recommend you do for the extra practice.

 

Ds initially complained the explanations were insufficient, however, after going over it myself, I found the material to be very well covered; I could always find the section that explained exactly how to solve the problems.

Because the textbook is presented in the form of a story, ds had to get used to recognizing when he was being taught something new and pay attention, a real challenge for him, sigh.

 

He did email the author once, the response came quickly and was really simple~it also helped ds understand how he was supposed to be 'seeing' the problem , if that makes sense. Like you said, setting up the equation is the challenging part and imo, where the real learning is happening.

Try having him read the whole chapter again, slowly, and emailing Stan for clarification. On page 75 he tells you to use the formula for motion for the type of problems you mentioned, and in the YTP problems, have your son carefully read the explanations he gives in the answers.

 

This book has really helped ds respect, if not like, algebra.

Traditional textbooks bored him and he would automatically let his eyes glaze over and tune out the instructor on the video.

He was done before he got started, iykwim.

Fred appeals to his practical problem-solving nature and there's a huge sense of accomplishment when he solves the problems.

Hth!