Life of Fred

[Guest April98]

What are your opinions of Life of Fred, specificallly, the pre-algebra and algebra books? Should they be used in conjunction with other curriculum? My son is 12 and is finishing up with the high school DVDs from Great Courses for Mathmatics Fundamentals.

 

Thanks for any info!

 

April

[mumto2]

We love LOF. Generally have another curriculum going on at the same time but depending on the child I don't think you have to. There are going to be many different opinions on this board because LOF threads seem to bring them out! From personal experience, most of dd's Trigonometry knowledge comes from LOF and she has excelled at the exams I have found via the web--so to me it appears to be complete at least for that course. I know that the algebra sequence is not typical so that needs to be considered for ACT/SAT. Geometry follows algebra also.

[Laura Corin]

LOF worked well for us for decimals, fractions and percents. We tried to use it as a stand-alone programme for algebra and Calvin was quickly unhappy and confused. He likes his maths explicit and doesn't enjoy working things out for himself. We moved to a more explicitly-taught text.

 

Laura

[Hannah]

LOF worked well for us for decimals, fractions and percents. We tried to use it as a stand-alone programme for algebra and Calvin was quickly unhappy and confused. He likes his maths explicit and doesn't enjoy working things out for himself. We moved to a more explicitly-taught text. Laura

 

We tried fractions and my dd didn't enjoy it. For the same reason - she likes her maths explicit.

[NittanyJen]

DS11 has used LoF for math for Fractions, Decimals and Percents, two of the PreA books (Biology and Economics) and is now nearly done with Beginning Algebra. I am pleased with his mastery of the subject, as is my math professor husband, and we have had to do very little teaching with the books. As mentioned in other threads, I do keep copies of Dolciani and Tobey on hand to periodically test his comprehension by making him teach me a section 'cold' (no prep time) or by working extra problems that may be worded differently from Fred (to make sure he isn't locked into just being able to answer "Fred Problems."). So far the indication is that he is achieving excellent mastery by working independently in Fred.

 

It's self-correcting for him; if he reads too fast or fails to take notes, he struggles and has to go read again, a lesson I am thrilled for him to learn now rather than in college!

 

It does take some self discipline, and is not super incremental. It does cover everything in a traditional algebra course, and then some, so exams should be no problem, but if a child's learning style requires very linear, every step spelled out in big neon signs, Fred may not be right; it is good for kids who are very detail oriented readers. My son puts it, "Finally! A math book that treats me as if I have a brain!" (I think he means it doesn't spell out the same steps six times and then have you copy an example problem sixty more times, though the author is sneaky... all the fundamentals and tons of practice are in there, just more creatively).

 

I do recommend the Home Companion books to set a good pace after Algebra, and provide a little more practice. Khan Academy is a great website for as much additional practice as anybody could want, if needed.

 

If Fred doesn't work out, the 1980's editions of Dolciani are very good, and there is a soft bound text by Tobey that has a nice, clean layout and end of chapter tests included.

 

 

[Dmmetler]

For DD, we're using LoF Pre-Algebra (just finished Bio before Christmas, will begin Economics Jan 2) but also using Key to Algebra for practice and to slow her down a bit. Since she just turned 8, she's pretty young to be working with these skills, and I want to make sure she understands the concepts in different formats. Fred provides in the instruction, and DD likes that Fred's problems don't always have nice, neat pretty even answers (I like that too-the fact that in Fred you can't always get a problem down to a single number, sometimes the simplest form in a fraction is still pretty ugly, etc is something very real-world that most math texts simply don't do). It is helpful for her, though, to have a little more repetition and to explicitly be TOLD to write out each step, which is something Key to Algebra does quite well.

 

My guess is that by the time she gets to Algebra, we'll move to the Fred books with the home companion, but right now, this is a good pre-algebra for her that she's enjoying and learning from very, very much.