life of fred elementary question... help :)

[sweetsouthern]

i have my 6th grader who struggles desperately with math working on life of fred ice cream. i didnt realie that the elementary series doesnt have bridges (tests) in between the lessons. so shes on chapter 12 and each lesson she gets roughly 2 or 3 wrong. we go over them, but im not sure she is actually "grasping" that part as we are moving on. she has her facts down pat, its mainly things she hasnt learned yet, like to the second power, pie , etc. any ideas of how to handle this? should i have her review the "your turn" sections of all the lessons before we move on to the next book??? thanks so much!

[Chrysalis Academy]

I've been thinking about your question, and I'm not sure what advice to give - I'm not sure that the LOF Elementary series is where I'd go to help a desperatey struggling 6th grader. We loved LOF Elementary, but used it more for enjoyment, inspiration, and making math fun. We didn't use it to try and systematically identify and fill holes in math knowledge.

 

So if you want to use LOF elementary, I would do it together - read it together, and do the Your Turn to Play orally or on a whiteboard. That way you can see what she gets and what she doesn't. LOF isn't intended for independent use till you get to Fractions, and the Bridges (as you say) are the way for the parent to see if the kid is "getting it".

 

For catching her up, getting her to the place where she doesn't desperately struggle with 6th grade math, I would use a different approach. I might pick a program like Math Mammoth, where you can get several different levels inexpensively. I would do the placement tests - do the 4th grade and 5th grade ones - to identify the areas where she is solid, and the areas where she struggles. If I can clearly identify specific areas where she struggles, I would then use the Dark Blue series to address these areas. If it was more general, then I would pick the appropriate level based on the placement test and start working through it (the Light Blue) systematically. So with a struggling 6th grader, you might end up using MM5. Then, for each lesson, if she gets it, accelerate through, just doing a few problems and moving on. If the lesson is new or a challenge, but she gets it with the teaching provided, do the lesson at that level. If she really struggles, back up and find worksheets on that concept from an earlier level, and work through those first, then go on with the lesson.

 

I don't know if this is at all helpful to your situation, but this is what I would do with a struggling student. We did something like this when dd came home after the 1st quarter of 4th grade at ps, to identify her holes in knowledge and fill them in. It didn't take long, and now she is flying along in MM5. So this definitely worked for us!

 

We also did the LOF elementary series during 4th grade, but like I said it was done together, mostly for the purpose of reawakening enjoyment in math. She is now doing Fractions & Decimals on her own in 5th grade, alongside MM5.

 

Good luck in helping your daughter with Math!

[jennyradmer]

I would agree with using LOF as supplemental and then using MM as the basic math course. We used Singapore, switched to LOF apples- Edgeood, and then switched to MM. LOF just did not have enough ... well, math. We will pick it up again because we are flying through MM and it will be a good filler.

[thebacabunch]

We are lof fans, but it isn't our primary math. It is a supplement. ALso, the author of LOF says to read the elementary books with the kids and to read them 2 or 3 times during the elementary years.